Earlier today Apple held an iPhone-oriented media event, covering topics including the iPhone in enterprise to the long-awaited SDK. Here are some of my initial thoughts on the announcements made today.

And yes, I wrote this as I followed the announcements, so they’re very, very early first impressions.

Enterprise

First of all, it seems strange to see Apple even discuss the enterprise market, considering their focus has been on the consumer for years and years. But considering almost every other smart phone out there is designed to be enterprise-friendly, it makes sense that Apple would do the same with the iPhone, especially since some corporate users are already using the iPhone.

Apple announced the addition of a good number of enterprise-friendly features for their next iPhone software, ranging from push email support and better calendar integration to better VPN support to the all-important Microsoft Exchange support. And as it turns out, Apple licensed the ActiveSync protocol for use on the iPhone. As Macworld reports, “With ActiveSync, the iPhone talks directly to Exchange. So the iPhone will get push e-mail, push calendaring, push contacts, global access lists, and remote wipe, all while talking to Exchange. And it’s built into the existing applications—mail goes into the same Mail program, calendar into the same Calendar, and so on.”

I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to the enterprise, but I think Apple just answered a lot of people’s prayers with these additions. Do I think this means we’ll see Apple making a more general push into the enterprise market? Somehow I doubt it. For Apple, this seems to be more of a reactive move. They saw that enterprise was interested in the iPhone, so they filled the gap with enterprise-specific features.

The SDK...

As this video shows, iPhone gaming will be like nothing else out there. There’s a lot of potential for opening the iPhone to third-party developers, and the unofficial apps have shown lots of promise. Now that developers will have a fully-documented API to play with, I can’t wait to see what people come up with.

Scott Forstall came onstage to discuss the iPhone SDK. And what an SDK it is! iPHone development will be based on a new application framework based on Cocoa named...wait for it...Cocoa Touch (those clever folks at Apple). Why a different framework? Cocoa, which many Mac developers use to create apps, is designed around a keyboard-and-mouse user interface, so Apple needed to develop something for the touch-based interface of the iPhone and iPod touch.

Forstall also briefly went over the other layers of the iPhone OS: the core OS almost the same as what is on the Mac, but there are some different core services built atop to. One such service is Core Location, which, according to Macworld, “uses cell tower and wi-fi data to figure out where you are.” Nice to see that Apple isn’t keeping that to themselves.

iPhone development will take place inside Apple’s XCode and Interface Builder development tools. Yay. Apple’s also including an iPhone simulator so you can test your apps without using an iPhone. Weren’t there rumors about a simulator a little while back?

It appears developers will be able to take advantage of the iPhone’s motion sensor. Forstall demoed a photo distortion app, and to remove the distortions you applied, you...shake the iPhone Etch-a-Sketch style. They also wrote a game that leverages the accelerometer to steer a ship. Sweet. Reminds me of a portable version of Nintendo’s Wii.

Forstall stressed how simple it is to develop for the iPhone, even for people who have never developed for OS X, and invited developers from EA, Salesforce, and other companies to discuss their experiences working with iPhone development.

What I hoped to see come out of the iPhone SDK is fairly simple: a decent AIM client for iPhone. Many phones--smart or otherwise--include AIM support. iChat works with AIM. Why didn’t the iPhone support AIM from the very beginning? It looks like I’ll be getting my wish, as AOL is bringing AIM to the iPhone. Score! I’ve never been impressed with AOL’s own desktop client, but I would expect an iPhone client to work better.

As for distribution, Apple will include a new application, App Store, to the next iPhone update. Were they inspired a bit by Installer.app for the iPhone and their own iTunes WiFi Music Store? Signs point at yes. And, of course, you can purchase and download applications through iTunes on your computer. It looks like the speculation and rumors of Apple controlling application distribution were true. Developers can pick the price, and developers keep 70% of the revenue from iPhone app sales (apple keeps the other 30% for distribution). Free apps won’t cost developers a penny to distribute. It should be interesting to see how developers react to this, but it seems to be a pretty fair scheme.

Apple will put some limitations on what apps can be sold so nothing illegal, malicious, or otherwise questionable makes it onto people’s iPhones.

The new features discussed today will be introduced with the iPhone 2.0 update. A beta version is being seeded today to developers, and a final version will be released in June (be patient!). Apple is also introducing the iPhone Developer Program, which you need to join if you want Apple to distribute your app. Joining the Program costs $99 US.

iFund

Also announced was the iFund, a $100 million startup fund backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins especially for iPhone developers.

Apple closed with a Q & A session for the press. Macworld’s coverage includes the Q & A session if you’re curious.

Put it together and what do you get?

Trouble for the competition, that’s what!

The iPhone is already selling well in the United States. Now that it will include serious enterprise tools, I think it’s safe to say that the iPhone will make inroads into the enterprise world. Maybe eventually it will help get the Mac into the enterprise world, but I don’t see that happening on a large scale.

What Apple managed to do today is turn the iPhone into a better phone for enterprise users, and an even better consumer toy. I’ve held off on purchasing an iPhone so far because I have my iPod, and I do little more with my cell phone than make the occasional call. I’m lame like that. Maybe now I’ll break down and buy one (or at least consider buying one).

Now what about jailbreaking? Will there still be a market for that? I think so. I doubt Apple will allow developers to distribute iPhone hacks through their app store. So while most users will be satisfied by official apps, more technical users may still want to consider jailbreaking, so don’t count out the unofficial iPhone app community just yet.

All of this is a result of something simple: Apple listening to their customers. It’s something Apple hasn’t seemed to be very open about doing until fairly recently. You can’t add every requested feature, of course, but by listening, Apple made the iPhone a much more attractive device from consumers and business alike.

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