SDK ETA?

Are you the type who set your Countdown Dashboard widget to February as soon as Apple promised that this would be the month it rolled out a Software Development Kit for the iPhone? If so, you may want to start thinking of March as the new February… at least if BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl is on the money.

A post on BusinessWeek’s Byte of the Apple blog late Friday raised the possibility that February will come and go with no new developments on the iPhone SDK front:

I’m hearing from one source that its going to be late. I’m not yet hearing any reasons why, and it’s sounding like the official release date could slide by anywhere from one to three weeks.

Apple had no comment, and as yet there’s no word on any events related to an SDK release next week. However I’m also hearing that the situation is fluid, and a lot of last-minute decisions are close to being made about what precisely will or will not be disclosed next week, if anything. There are, apparently, a lot of moving parts to something this complex.

We could have confirmation or denial of this report in as little as 24 hours. Remember that Apple tends to be a busy little beaver on Tuesdays, with releases such as Xsan 2, a revamped iPod shuffle lineup, an update to Aperture, the Apple TV, Take Two software update, and higher capacities for the iPhone and iPod touch appearing on earlier Tuesdays this month. So if Apple has an SDK ready to drop, chances are good that it will appear tomorrow.

And if it doesn’t? Well, February doesn’t come to a close until Friday.

Would it be a big deal if Apple misses its self-imposed February ship date for the SDK? I’m guessing my colleague Rob Griffiths would say no — over at the Mothership, he’s written a piece lauding the number of iPhone apps that are available right now without any SDKs to guide the way for developers.

Category: News

Posted by Philip Michaels on Feb 25 2008, 5:43 PM ET

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