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Apple Drops Part of iPhone Developer NDA
ds writes "Apple, this morning, announced they are dropping the iPhone Developer NDA in respect to released software. Previously, iPhone developers were legally bound even after their software had been released."
Another reader adds, "Early release software is still covered, but this should bring about increased developer interaction, as well as a slew of iPhone dev books." The complete message about the NDA change can be seen for now at Apple's iPhone Developer site, and is reproduced below.
"We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.
We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.
However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.
Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter."
Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.
If I read this right, does that mean developers still can't publicly bitch about their apps being rejected from the store?
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
They were probably waiting for Android to be released.
GPL Deconstructed
They wanted to wait for the Android release so the API could not legally borrow too heavily from the iPhone API.
At least, that seems like a reasonable guess...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I suspect they were waiting for Android. Prior to its arrival, they were pretty much the only game in town, so there wasn't really anywhere for disgruntled developers to flee to.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
They had to recover from the clubbing they got from developers.
If I read this right, does that mean developers still can't publicly bitch about their apps being rejected from the store?
"released software" means APPLE released software. As in, you can talk about API versions that are out in public but not versions that are still developer preview only.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would this affect jailbreakers? Why would they have ever agreed to an Apple NDA?
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
I've put my order in for a G1 and I'll be writing applications for that platform from now on. I spent far too long at the mercy of another iron fisted company to want to go back to that kind of situation.
Oh the benevolent and merciful Apple. Thank you for allowing me to speak and allowing me to gaze upon your products. You truly are awesome Apple.
Apple is so great, and innovative, and fantastic. They make the best, most dependable enterprise products, and they treat their developers like gods. I wish Apple controlled the entire computer industry. It would be beautiful , intuitive, and in a word, "perfect."
Slashdot = -1 Redundant, Asperger, kdawson FUD, Libertarian, and Linux
BWAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAA! Yeah, the industry is rapidly moving to Android, a platform that has only just seen a released product that is middling at best and has yet to gain a foothold in the market. Yeah, there's a mass exodus of developers from the ridiculously lucrative iPhone market. Yeah, the iPhone is the only competition for Android and vice versa, so Blackberry and Palm don't figure into it at all.
I fucking hate FOSS fanboys.
Argh.
Should read
Saurik and other jailbroken-iphone devs
Click here if you want to get a see what is needed to compile code developed outside of Apple's X-Code.
import system.cool.Sig;
Apple is facing a mass exodus of phone developers with their constant blunders from secrecy and rejecting apps that threaten their own apps.
Did you just make that up?
The cellphone industry is rapidly moving to Android as their standard platform
Even if this is true... so what? Since Apple doesn't offer their platform to other makers, why would they care what other makers use?
This is just the first step in Apple's fade into niche irrelevance in the cellphone market.
If you take a step back, you'd see that they are already in a niche - supplying just a tiny fraction of cell phones. However, as they always seem to do, they picked a very profitable niche. If it gets too competitive, I wouldn't expect to see them hang around.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
When are people going to start bitching about Apple providing an email application in their phone, and then locking others out (as was discussed here earlier).
This is > Microsoft Antitrust (think internet exploder), ESPECIALLY with all the people screaming iphone iphone iphone (think, market penetration).
Not intended as a troll, but I have to wonder, when Apple can INTENTIONALLY lock vendors out of providing applications for their phone (and Apple is the OS and hardware provider here, make no mistake about it, NOT AT&T), but Microsoft gets raked over the coals about bundling internet exploder?
What the fuck? Seriously, what the FUCK?
No IPhone or Apple fan (although I do have a Mac), just gotta wonder, WTF is Jobs thinking?
--Toll_Free
We mac developers were led to believe that by WWDC, we'd have an SDK with a lifted NDA. Nope. Didn't happen.
We mac developers were led to believe that by July 11 when the iPhone 3G was released, we'd have an SDK with a lifted NDA. Nope. Didn't happen.
Now they tell us that the NDA will be lifted at some point in the near future. What's changed?
Saurik explains alot of it here.
They developed using Apple's open-source stuff via darwin-gcc, if I understand correctly. You just never got any of the really cool class headers required to use the neater functions of the IPhone.
In order to make the most with the 2.x firmware, you needed to get the SDK. Once you got it, you agreed to the NDA.
import system.cool.Sig;
Let's just check the facts:
Número uno: The internet hated the NDA. Not only the goodwill and fanboyism that Apple gets for free was up for grabs; but also there was a real chance that Apple might become the new Microsoft in public opinion.
Número dos: Google does not fight the internet, and brought out Android. Android is gonna get some traction, not least for being open-source, for coming up with cool apps that google awarded prizes for, and for securing your developer's rights to distribute.
Número três: The market is down. It's going to get worse. In fact, we may have crossed the point of no return. The USA might have hyperinflation and all that comes with it.
So Steve had no alternative. The question is, for how long will the draconian measures at the app store still exist?
When will developers be sure of their investment?
This has as much credibility as "Year of the Linux" and "iPod Killers"
Android has yet to ship and create a healthy ecosystem that can be monetized by developers. It's all conjecture now. Just about anyone knows about the iPhone. The brand is really hot and in demand. NDA whining is confined to nerd elite who have found an issue and want to run with it as if it affects the majority of people. It doesn't.
Apple is really shielding itself from all kinds of legal minefields. This issue isn't black and white as some make it out to be. Every company out there wants to see shelves stocked with books targeting their platform. NDA prevents some publishers from releasing books which only goes to prove that Apple isn't doing this to be antagonistic. They have assumed the risk because the alternative could be much worse.
I disagree. I think that the market is largely driven by what consumers want. Apple has a huge head start--they are quite literally years ahead on hardware/software integration, having released a product that has yet to see any equal in overall end-user experience. People absolutely love the iPhone. Relatively speaking, they haven't even heard of what the competitors are offering, and even the recent release of Android has received minimal attention by comparison.
Now that I've established the context, it's easy to see why handset manufacturers and non-AT&T providers in the US are embracing Android. It is their best shot at competing with Apple. They moved too slow, lacked long-term vision, and failed to concede to Apple's demands. And now they're scrambling to keep up. iPhone + iTunes + App Store = killer combination. This has nothing to do with FOSS. Face it, few people have even seen what Android does, let alone have any real-world understanding of how well it will integrate with a variety of handsets and carriers. Because it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it'll be a competitor, maybe it won't. But I can confidently say that whatever the outcome, it won't look or feel nearly as clean as an Apple product.
I've also heard that despite a lot of grumblings by iPhone developers, they generally like the business model. Steve Demeter, for example, is on the record for saying he has no intention of bringing Trism to Android. This coming from a guy who made a quarter million in two months off his blockbuster game. So I don't think you're telling the whole story here. It's the secrecy they don't like, and with this latest turn, Apple has done the right thing.
Frankly, I'm amazed that you didn't get modded down. Your bias is so clearly showing and you lack any evidence to back up your outrageous claims. I think Android can be huge, and I like that Google has stepped up to provide more competition in the mobile computing market. I hope it lives up to the high expectations that the industry has set for it, but I'm not holding my breath because judging from how Motorola, Sony Ericsson, RIM, Palm, Samsung, LG, Nokia, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, etc. have behaved in the past, I don't think they're going to all have some kind of Voltron moment and band together to bring down the "evil Apple."
After all, you're just cheering for one evil corporation to smite the other. Personally, what matters to me most is whether I get the user experience and customer service I expect. If Android facilitates this goal, then I'm all for it. But you won't catch me talking complete bullshit just because I have a stick up my ass about a particular company. That's so last decade.
Prior to [android], they were pretty much the only game in town, so there wasn't really anywhere for disgruntled developers to flee to.
Damn, you mean I've been hallucinating that Palm, Microsoft, and Nokia have been shipping smartphone software since the '90s?
While you're rewriting history, why don't you take care of that annoying hohocaust thing as well?
Apple is facing a mass exodus of phone developers with their constant blunders from secrecy and rejecting apps that threaten their own apps.
As an iPhone developer, I could only pray that would be true. Contrary to your assertion though there seems to be a pretty good inlflux of new developers, and thus new competition, into the iPhone application development realm. And of course, lifting the NDA means all of the most experienced developers can now offer help to everyone, further increasing developer interest and retention and shared knowledge (not that a lot of that was not happening already, but now that books can be published...).
The cellphone industry is rapidly moving to Android as their standard platform with Motorola being the latest large cellphone company to embrace Google's open source OS with a ramp up of their internal Android team to 500 people.
Awesome for Android (which I like and may also develop apps for at some point), sucks to be Windows Mobile. Not sure I see any impact on the iPhone though.
To suggest that there is some sort of secret and valuable information in the iPhone SDK that anyone cares about is absolutely inane.
To suggest that many best practices for advanced development techniques have been easy to find is far more inane. Yes you know there's a UITableViewController. Do you know how to make cells using Interface Builder? Or how to have a text view become first responder as you enter a screen?
This is just the first step in Apple's fade into niche irrelevance in the cellphone market.
Careful there, your spittle is starting to obscure your writing.
Just another funny Apple Hater I guess. Tired of having his normal user ID pummeled by reason...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How about open source? Can we build FOSS for the thing now?
There are already a number of iPhone projects on Google Code that were there before. It was just a question before if you wanted to risk you developer status and App Store distribution ability to add to them... now that's lifted iPhone OSS should be more abundant.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually, isn't this move arguably their step back away from that edge? The developer backlash from the App-denial situation (and the NDA situation) was threatening to put them in a bad spot, and this is a decision in the developers' favor.
Yeah but how many times do you have to be bitten as a developer before you stop going back. I know if I had spent a bunch of time and effort making a complete phone app only to have it rejected at the last minute for some capricious reason, that would be the last time I developed on that platform.
When I read that Apple backed off on the NDA, to me that sounds like - "we are dropping the NDA because everyone got pissed off, yet we reserve the right to screw over developers in the future." They want to operate that way, fine - as a developer I'll spend my time elsewhere.
What makes Apple special on hardware/software integration? You're seriously asking this question? Since when has Nokia or Motorola come out with anything that looks remotely like iTMS? Since when have they developed a UI that is easy to use and intuitive? If I have to hunt through a labyrinth of nested menus to change a setting on my phone, that's poor design, UI as an afterthought. Who was the first to employ an an orientation sensor in a phone, a multi-touch screen, and other hardware improvements and then integrate that with the software? That is what I mean by "years ahead."
The iPhone was not, and is not, perfect. At least Apple never claimed it to be. The fan base might treat it as such, but as is the case with fans, there's often a love/hate relationship. The consumer is not a monolithic entity. Loving the existing product while buying the next available revision is not logically inconsistent, and in fact, you fail to recognize that some degree of product success is required in order for consumers to be willing to purchase the next version. If you think such behavior is unique to Apple, you've obviously ignored the Playstation, the Wii, and the XBox. They're standing in line because Apple has made a product that people love to use and love to be seen using. It does things that other phones don't do, and it generally does them well. Perfection isn't a prerequisite for a successful product.
They can't name competitors' products because as of the present time, there isn't one. There hasn't been one YET. You again fail to understand the nature of the product. The iPhone is more than just the handset itself, just like the iPod is not just the hardware device. It is the device + iTunes. Once you understand this, you will see that to date, there has not been any other product so tightly integrated on the market. Now, bear in mind I hope Android changes this. I sincerely do. But I really doubt it will ever look and feel as clean, because there is something unique about Apple's long-standing tradition of (obsessively) developing a product from the ground up. Remember, Google has to make a product that works with different hardware, different carriers, and different corporate tastes. In fact, these companies (Sony, Motorola, etc.) are even competing against each other! So do you really think that the result will be anywhere near as monolithic as what Apple has done?
In a way, it might be a good thing. Who knows? And that's my point. People are all excited about Android and making broad claims about the demise of Apple's business model for the iPhone, all over a product that has yet to cut its teeth in the marketplace. It's way, way, WAY too early to tell. Any claims about its ability to compete with a firmly established product as the iPhone is totally premature.
The parent post is just saying what everyone secretly knows is true.
People are making massive amounts of money from the iPhone App Store. There is nothing else out there like it. Google doesn't even have their store up yet, and after their last attempt at something like that, it is not at all certain that they can actually make it work.
Not to mention the fact that Android hasn't so far turned out to be the open-source panacea that everyone thought it would be. You have to program in Java and don't have access to low-level hardware like bluetooth any more so than on the iPhone.
The cellphone industry isn't "rapidly" doing anything other than playing catch-up to Apple. So far they still have a long way to go.
Free Hans!
Disclaimer, I have an iMac, a 20gb iPod (3rd gen), and now a Touch. I also am working with the SDK.
Apple is just as bad if not worse, their entire cover is "lack of market share" but if your in their market share your just screwed. I don't care, I want an alternative to Mail. Sorry but there are lots of features it does not have on the Touch UNLESS I buy ME. Sorry, but locking out competing applications is anti-competitive. Especially when they offer features they don't and only don't offer because they have paid products.
The problem really becomes annoying because when you get close to their "line" you don't know when it gets crossed. You post your app to iTunes and have to wait. If its a harmless app it gets in, if it comes close then your throwing dice.
Then we can toss out the fact they forbid their software on non-Apple provided machines. At least with IE if it didn't render a site for whatever reason I had alternatives, though during the time of contention Netscape 4.xx was out and it was such a suck product they couldn't help but lose.
No, they just mince words to pull off the same or worse than MS. Their saving grace is lack of market share and a clique mentality amongst some of their supporters. They make great software and hardware but are too draconian in its application.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
You're telling me that in 2006 and 2007 that the same people who would buy an iPod went out and bought WinMo and Treos?
No, they probably bought RAZRs. And most of them are still buying something like RAZRs. The market for smartphones (even if we include the iPhone) is tiny.
In 2007 when the iPhone was only available for half a year and only in the US, it was the number 2 handset!
In 2000 when the iPaq was only available for half a year, it brought the Windows Mobile share of the PDA market from single digits to maybe 15%... but for the next four years until Palm decided to self-destruct by ostentatiously dissing PalmOS in favor of the yet to be released (and now apparently never to be released) BeOS based OS... Windows Mobile didn't break 20% of the market.
And the iPhone wasn't the #2 handset in 2007, it was #2 smartphone. This August it was... hmm, #2. And #1 was... Blackberry? Not Nokia? Well, with a tiny market like that, a single device can create a sudden surge, and Blackberry's new touch screen device is apparently selling really well. I guess all those app developers need to switch from iPhone to Blackberry.
Apple is facing a mass exodus of phone developers with their constant blunders from secrecy and rejecting apps that threaten their own apps.
Apple is facing a mass exodus of OSS zealots with their constant blunders from secrecy and rejecting apps that threaten their own apps.
There, fixed that for you.