Posted by Tom Krazit
CUPERTINO, Calif.--We're here at Apple's headquarters for the company's announcement of its iPhone software development kit. The event is scheduled to start Thursday at 10 a.m. PT. What follows is a live blog of CEO Steve Jobs' speech, with updates appearing in reverse chronological order.
10:20 a.m.: "I'm here to tell you about how developers can build great applications for the iPhone," Forstall said. He starts off, however, with the Web applications, which Apple initially said was the best way to build applications for the iPhone back at its developer conference last June. Developers were less than enthused, but it's true that these days you can build lots of interesting Web applications that don't require native access to the computer. Scott singles out Facebook and Bank of America, saying that the iPhone accounts for 25 percent of all mobile online banking for BOA.
10:18 a.m.: "These are the features customers have asked for to make the iPhone a big hit in businesses, universities," and other places around the world, Schiller said. "Now it's addressing the needs of the enterprise as well. That's it for the enterprise features, now Scott Forstall will address the SDK.
10:16 a.m.: Schiller demonstrates the remote wiping feature, which appears to disable the iPhone. That part went through really quickly. I'll try to figure out later what exactly happens when you "remote wipe" an iPhone.
10:14 a.m.: Apple appears to have packed the auditorium with employees, who are very enthusiastically applauding every successful demonstration of a new feature. Either that, or the press corps is really, really excited.
10:13 a.m.: Schiller starts demoing the new features. He's using a virgin iPhone, demonstrating how you would activate the functionality with Exchange. You can do the whole thing over the air, which is very helpful for IT administrators: You won't have to go collect every iPhone that needs that feature. E-mail, contacts, and calendar are automatically pushed from your desktop to your iPhone upon setup. As far as I understand, many devices, such as my Treo and BlackBerrys, also offer over-the-air setup; it's almost a requirement in the IT world.
10:10 a.m.: You'll soon get push e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and a global contacts list, as well as the remote wipe security feature. The iPhone's Mail application will have this functionality; you won't have to have a new user interface for e-mail and calendars. This will ship with every iPhone.
10:08 a.m.: Schiller starts ripping on the BlackBerry, without actually mentioning it, of course. He's referring to the use of a NOC, "which adds to risk and reliability, as we've seen from time to time." The crowd of CrackBerry enthusiasts chuckles.
10:07 a.m.: What do they really want? Microsoft Exchange. And they're getting it: Schiller announces that Apple has licensed the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol, which will make it much easier to do push e-mail and contacts with Exchange servers.
10:07 a.m.: So, what did businesses want? "Great e-mail integration," says Schiller. That also extends to calendars, contacts, and the global address lists of corporations--having that technology instantly accessible and pushed to the device. They also want security policies, like VPNs and remote wiping of a stolen iPhone, and configuration help. "I'm really excited to be the one to tell you today that we're doing all these things in the next release of the iPhone software."
10:04 a.m.: Schiller starts talking about the companies that have inquired about working with the iPhone, mentioning Genentech, where Apple board member Art Levinson is CEO. It's also been a university play, according to Schiller, bringing up Stanford University's deployment of the iPhone. He avoids mentioning Duke, who initially blamed the iPhone for a widespread network outage last year.
10:03 a.m.: Jobs' going to be joined on stage by Phil Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, and Scott Forstall. Phil comes up on stage to handle the enterprise portion of the conference.
10:01 a.m.: Steve Jobs enters--standard outfit. "We're really excited to share some great news with you about the iPhone software roadmap." He rattles off a few iPhone stats from the early days of the product, quoting the Canalys numbers for smartphone share in the U.S., which puts the iPhone in 2nd place behind Research In Motion.
10 a.m. PST: Apple's special event today in Cupertino is about to get started, as a couple hundred people are gathered inside Apple's Town Hall auditorium at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. We're waiting to hear how Apple plans to handle third-party application development for the iPhone, as well as to learn about new business-friendly features. Props to Apple this time around for the power strips, but come on guys, it's 2008. Wi-Fi is a proven technology.
The crowd awaits Steve Job's keynote address at the iPhone software event. |
