Don't hold your breath

Gearlog posts a story that shows Apple’s stance on the modding their hardware:

I asked [Apple’s Greg Joswiak] about independent, native software development for the iPhone. He said Apple doesn’t oppose native application development, which was new to me. Rather, Apple takes a neutral stance - they’re not going to stop anyone from writing apps, and they’re not going to maliciously design software updates to break the native apps, but they’re not going to care if their software updates accidentally break the native apps either. He very carefully left the door open to a further change in this policy, too, saying that Apple is always re-examining its perspective on these sorts of things.

This is pretty consistent with previous devices (Apple TV hacks, the existing Linux-on-iPod project). By being neutral to software development they allow the minority who “need” custom features to still get them in some fashion without being beholden to support them officially. For example, Apple never had to add OGG support because those few who needed that audio format on an iPod were likely satisficed by the Linux project. Apple is focused on the mainstream, and being developer-neutral allows them to trend-watch their devices from a extremely safe distance. If a feature is a) important enough to risk breaking the thing and b) is popular enough to be rapidly adopted by users and developers of the hacked devices, they know it is a feature that might be worth developing internally or with a partner that will help the bottom-line. It can also help fine-tune and set priorities for existing projects already in the pipeline (just think of every late-to-the-party feature of .Mac service, and the quick upgrade to the 160 GB Apple TV after hackers learned how to upgrade the HD).

I take their statement to mean what I’ve been assuming all along — if we are to ever see an official iPhone SDK released, its countdown is in years, not months.

Especially after this update in the same article:

Apple says “software updates will most likely break” native apps as they go forwards.