Apple promise third party iPhone apps by February

Cupertino (CA) – Steve Jobs believes that the iPhone is “the best mobile platform ever for developers”, but users are still waiting for Apple to open up the phone for third parties almost four months after launch. But according Jobs, the SDK is coming – as soon as concerns about malware threats have been reduced.

So far, the iPhone has been everything else but the open playground for software developers that Apple has promised. CEO Steve Jobs today addressed the complaints from users and developers and wrote on the firm’s website that the company actually wants “native third party applications” to run on the iPhone. “We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”

An official kit that will enable the creation of such software is now expected to be released in February for what Jobs called the “best mobile platform ever for developers.”

It isn’t really a secret that especially mobile platforms have a great need for a comprehensive software portfolio built around them – a need Apple that takes Apple much longer than expected to address. As it appears now, the company may have run into some unexpected issues with its strategy to open up the platform” : Jobs wrote that the SDK will also have to “protect [the] iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc.”

“This is no easy task,” he wrote and noted that “powerful” phones will be able to also run “more dangerous programs.” Additionally, the executive believes that the popularity of the iPhone carries the potential to make the device a “highly visible target.”

“We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones,” Jobs wrote.