Apple announced today that it has decided to drop the controversial iPhone developer non-disclosure agreement because it “created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success.”
According to the company, in a statement released today, it “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.” But after dealing with public outcry, Apple believed it wasn’t worth it.
Apple said that developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within the next week, but was quick to note that all unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.
This is great news and will help increase the quality of applications. It will also help the iPhone platform compete with Google’s Android. A strong open community leads to more innovation.
God, what a relief.
Thats the difference btw good and best bloggers.. lil more detail and opinion and i need not have to click through all links given.
Ultimately, me being new to this issue, i could not make any sense of this blog post.
✔
Hey, Apple has ears! All that bitchin was worth it.
This is a no-brainer for Apple (and a necessary fix for their unnecessary gaffe). As your article aptly points out, all of the devs are under prior NDA’s for using the SDK and for unpublished apps.
Apple has very little to lose, and EVERYTHING to gain by keeping its customers and developers somewhat satisfied. At its best, the App store program enables people to develop highly useful apps, such as –
http://www.boil...device-ereader/
otherwise, if Apple wants to put a (legal) stranglehold on the very people who are bringing the company enormous revenue…people will turn to Android and/or go back to web-based apps (esp. if the rumors of flash are true).
boilr – don’t confuse ‘apps’ with ’software’ as referred to in the press release.
Apple is referring to *their* released software – the iPhone SDK.
Some developers are privy to unreleased SDK versions as they are developed, which is what (I am almost certain) the press release refers to.
Don’t fight the internet.
Anytime there are less NDA’s is always good. But reading that little post on Apple’s web site seems kind of like a bunch of PR crap to me.
“We don’t want people to rip off the iPhone” – please explain how an NDA on “released software” does this in any way. I don’t see how anyone who has actually released software has any more knowledge about the iPhone than someone who has just downloaded the SDK and written unreleased software. The fact that every single thing for developing for the iPhone is free of charge (except for being eligible for App Store which is $99) and there are no sort of verifications as to who you are before you download the SDK or anything – what the fuck is Apple talking about?
There was some speculation that the NDA was in place to protect patents:
http://daringfi...one_nda_patents
“At my company, our lawyers advised us to keep what we considered more-or-less public software under NDA for a very long time because demoing software to someone under NDA, no matter how many people it is, avoids “publishing” the software and any inventions contained therein. We know Apple’s been building up a patent strategy around multi-touch; maybe their lawyers believe there are patentable inventions described in the iPhone SDK and they are telling Apple to keep everything under NDA until they know provisional patents can be filed within a reasonable amount of time (you get a year after publishing in the US, but in the EU, I think you forfeit any patent claims once your invention is “published”).
It’s like, it doesn’t matter at all how broad/leaky the NDA process is, in the eyes of the USPTO, every invention in the iPhone SDK is a non-published invention and will continue to be so until the NDA is lifted.”
How about liberating the app store now, Steve?
Isn’t it obvious that Apple will quickly work through all the things that people are moaning about (none of them are very difficult to fix)?
-Andrew
http://www.trac...myshipments.com
“Stop whining about Apple”? Who wrote that again?
I think this also means publishers can now legally release books about the SDK. I have been waiting for one from http://www.pragprog.com/ and their whole issue has been the NDA and so they couldn’t legally publish the book.
Such books should help push the creativity of iPhone Apps – I’m sure that there are lots of creative people out there who can’t get their heads around the SDK and C++.
im glad apple did this, it would have really hurt their customers and developers if they continued with this.
http://gatesand...ple-can-do.html
Oh its too much of a burden on the developers is it? You have our best interest in mind do you?
Well where was this sentiment when they made this policy in the first place? Seems to me Apple’s policy is ‘get away with as much as we can’. I think Apple’s iconic status has gone to it’s management’s head… Its your users who you should be serving, not your egos… get it right!
“… includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work.”
That’s really funny. How about:
… includes many Open Source inventions and innovations that we would like to lock with a few proprietary extensions.
Aside from the bogus reasoning they have given for having the NDA in the first place… the people that need the NDA removed the most are people that have not released an application.. so they can get help in building an app. If a developer runs into a problem… he or she cannot ask anybody else… and must wait for apple support to respond… how does this affect any potential open source applications?
they saw how many people are clamoring for android.
silly apples. “no, we don’t need a community for people developing our applications!” hahaha
it’s high time they knock off their cut of the app store too. push what little money people can make off the apps back to them so they can make even better apps. grow your community by supporting THEM and they’ll in turn drive your brand.
it’s a no brainer
I knew this was coming…only a matter of time. Like I’ve said, competition is always a good thing.
Pretty obvious they’re feeling the heat from Android. And while this is definitely a step in the right direction, there’s a big difference between embracing open innovation and conceding to it. They may be improving their game, but they’ve still got the wrong attitude.
Excellent! Now I can finally post my review of the iPhone SDK, based on our experience building Urbanspoon for iPhone:
http://www.urba...The-Review.html
Good news, so long as it doesn’t lead to the Apps Store filling with more junk that doesn’t work.
The iPhone is actually the next generation of hand held devices. My experience with developing iphone applications has also been GREAT!
Sam
iPhone Application Developer