Last Thursday, Apple took a bold step, opening the iPhone and releasing the SDK (software development kit) that facilitates developing iPhone applications. Jobs has now moved away from the "control" we've seen impede Apple's technological leadership over the last 20 years, but is doing so in a measured and strategically sensible manner. Here's why.
The iPhone will be an incredibly tempting platform to build on, and the SDK will attract a lot of talent. However, Apple still controls what you can install, and if you pay, takes 30% of the revenue. If its free, Apple decides. So a lot of what is developed isn't going to generate revenue, or even be available to you. As a software developer, you're therefore going to try a lot harder. Especially since you might want your slice of the dedicated $100M iFund
And as Apple generates platform revenue and value, it simultaneously makes sure the user experience can be controlled. Thereby not making the mistake Facebook has, where there's now a lot of clutter that is damaging what used to be a clean user experience. This is an especially important consideration for Apple: they owe a large part of the success of their recent generations of devices and software to superior and simpler user-device interfaces.
Sure, this revenue cut implies higher prices for paid applications. Which aligns really well with the current (high-income) iPhone user base. Perhaps this will be revisited as the platform grows, the iPhone's technology becomes more stable, and the device becomes mass-market (if this ever happens). Let's wait and see.
