Apple Drops the iPhone Development NDA Opening the Door to More Aps

Hurrahs are ringing out all across the iPhone development community today as Apple has officially announced that they will drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) they've required developers to legally accept in order gain access to the iPhone's software development kit and thus develop on the platform.

Yup, sounds like pretty geeky stuff and it is. So why should consumers care? because now developers can freely share information, ask questions, get answers, between themselves about code, the iPhone's operating system, etc. that was previously deemed confidential even between developers, without the fear that discussing Apple trade secrets will result in legal action. That's kind of a big deal if you are a professional developer. From Apple's Developer Connection site:

"To Our Developers

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We 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. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter."

Developers have been calling for the NDA to be tossed since the iPhone dev kit--which contains things like sample code, system documentation and other tools that negate the need for developers to reinvent the wheel with new aps--came out of beta, going so far as to post an online petition to show Apple how strongly the community felt about this. So, what will the results be? Almost certainly more efficient and productive code that is more stable, less buggy and probably more books regarding writing applications for the iPhone OS 2.1.1 and beyond. Taken together this sounds like a recipe for a whole new batch of killer aps in the years to come. Way to see the light Apple.

--Tom Milnes