Finally, Apple yielded to the pressure from friends and annoyed developers, and announced that there will be an SDK for the iPhone. No surprise really. Trying to keep the phone away from developers would have boomeranged in the long run. Apple may have strong proprietary tendencies, but it’s not going to repeat the errors of the past and watch other companies eat it’s breakfast.

But why did Apple even try? Steve Jobs’ primary worry was that the iPhone would become virus prone - and that malware would be used to attack, not just phones, but the whole mobile network. So what is Apple doing to keep the phone clean?

Is it inviting in the AV software companies?

Well no, not all - because, as I’ve frequently pointed out, AV technology (based on taking signatures of malware) doesn’t work.

So Apple is doing the sensible thing. It is working on a system that approves applications with a digital signature, a technique known as whitelisting, which has the virtue that it does stop malware. (If you want to know more about whitelisting, read some of the AVID postings). As it happens, Nokia uses a whitelisting system of this kind, so Apple isn’t innovating, it’s imitating.

It’s quite likely that iPhone applications will be bought and distributed through the iTunes store. If so, this will make the whitelisting system pretty much bullet-proof.

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