Apple Announces iPhone 2.0 Software, featuring SDK and Enterprise…for June release

11:54 am, March 6th, 2008, Pete Mortensen

At its developer event his morning, Apple showed off the iPhone and iPod touch OS 2.0, which is quite an amazing update. It’s got fully loaded Exchange ActiveSync support, a full SDK opening up the complete iPhone toolkit - Spore and Super Monkey Ball for iPhone and touch look awesome and will challenge the DS and PSP - and it’s just got everything that was missing from the original iPhone (though no word on cut and paste yet…).

It’s great - but it’s not shipping until June. The software is in Beta today (you can apply to participate here), and developers have access to download the SDK now. Appl software will be distributed through the iPhone Apps store, available in desktop iTunes and over-the-air iTunes. It’s a slick system, and free applications will carry no fee for developers or customers. Commercial apps will give Apple a 30 percent royalty “to maintain the cost of the Apps store” and 70 percent of revenue to the developer. It’s a little onerous, but it’s good visibility for developers. Beyond which, the upgrade is free to iPhone owners and a “nominal charge” for touch users, who get screwed again.

One more thing about “late June” - that’s the one-year anniversary of the iPhone’s release. And Apple calls it iPhone 2.0. I guarantee that there will be significantly upgraded hardware out there to ship at the same time. Can you say iPhone 3G? I knew you could!

Live from Apple’s iPhone SDK press conference - Engadget

Tags: iphone, ipodtouch, apple, stevejobs, sdk, enterprise

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Software, iPhone | Comment on this article