Apple Announces Push Email, SDK, and App Store Details for iPhone

Today at an Apple press event, the company announced that the next release of the iPhone software, v2.0, will include support for Microsoft Exchange. Exchange support means that the normal iPhone mail and calendar apps will have the potential to get all of their data over the air from a corporate Exchange server. Thanks to Microsoft's Direct Push support, not only will the iPhone be able to manually synchronize with an Exchange server, but it will be able to receive those updates in real time. This addition of 'push' email should finally earn the iPhone an accepted spot in the enterprise world. The fact that the iPhone will even support a forced remote wipe might even make the IT guys crack a smile. A beta version of the new firmware will go out to developers today, and the public release will be available to iPhone owners for free in June. iPod Touch owners will also gain access to the update, and all of its associated features, but will have to pay what Apple is calling a "nominal charge."

Apple also announced details about the new iPhone SDK. The SDK will support full access to the application programming interfaces (API) used by Apple's own internal developers, which should mean that anything Apple has been able to develop can be duplicated by 3rd parties. The SDK implements a new version of Apple's Cocoa API, which the company calls Cocoa Touch, and will allow developers to do things like access the complete contacts database as well as develop apps that use their on databases - thanks to the SQLite API. The new SDK also provide developers with access to h.264 video playback, the iPhone's 3D accelerometer, location services, and the hardware accelerated OpenGL ES graphics system.

As part of the new SDK, Apple has also released Xcode, an editor that can be used to aid in development of iPhone applications. Xcode includes a debugger function that can even be used to remotely debug an application that is running on a tethered iPhone for real-world testing situations. An iPhone is not required for developing applications, though, thanks to Apple's new iPhone Simulator.

Applications developed by 3rd parties will be available from the new "App Store" on iPhones running the new 2.0 firmware. Apps can be downloaded over EDGE or WiFi network connections, or side-loaded from a desktop computer running iTunes. Apple also explained the revenue sharing model it will use for 3rd party application sales. The developer sets the price of the app, Apple gets 30% of the purchase price as its share and the developer gets the remaining 70%. Apple's 30% will cover processing and credit card fees and the like, meaning the developer gets an honest to goodness 70% of the selling price. If the developer chooses to offer the application for free, Apple gets nothing and doesn't even charge the developer any kind of hosting or handling fee. Another neat feature that Apple is offering is automatic application update notices through its iTunes store.

The iPhone Developer Program can be joined for a one time fee of US$99.