Apple today announced both their software development kit and support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and other enterprise-oriented features at their iPhone Software Roadmap event.
Phil Schiller Apple SVP of Product Marketing talked about how Apple has been listening to enterprise customers and compiling lists of what is holding the iPhone back from being “huge in corporations”. That list contains things missing from the current iPhone, things like push email, calendar & contacts and more security, etc. According to Phil, Apple will indeed deliver all of these items for the iPhone, including support for ActiveSync and Microsoft Exchange in June ’08, and hopefully become ‘colossal in corporations’ and ‘enormous in enterprises’.
Next up was the native iPhone Software Development Kit for building applications for the iPhone. Developers and coders can use APIs & tools in the SDK to create applications for the phone which will then be sold via the new Apple App Store, for a 70/30 revenue split paid out monthly.
In the 3rd half of the event Travis Boatman of Electronic Arts demonstrated a port of Spore to the iPhone via Cocoa Touch and the SDK. Salesforce.com then showed off a CRM app with salespeople on the go checking up on who & what they’re selling. AOL demo’d their AIM Instant Messaging service. Then Epocrates showed their mobile clinical reference medical software for drug interactions, drug prices, dosing, and disease & medical dictionary. The last walk-on had Sega showing Super Monkey Ball running on the iPhone.
Steve Jobs wrapped up by expressing his hope for getting a ton of apps out there for the iPhone. He added that all of the above Enterprise + Developer SDK components will be packaged and made available via something called the iPhone 2.0 Software Update shipping in June, with beta release today.
Applies to the iPod Touch also. killer devices
iPhone Software Roadmap March 6 Event – Apple presentation, March 6 2008
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If nothing else, the goal to get tons of apps was certainly fulfilled.