Apple kills NDA on iPhone app development

By on Oct 1, 2008 at 4:28 PM
News October 1, 2008

The latest news in the tumultuous relationship between Apple and iPhone app developers is a small victory on the developers side. It looks like Apple’s non-disclosure agreement with regards to apps build with the iPhone SDK is now officially kaput. The following is Apple’s official statement to developers:

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.

There you have it. Apparently Apple finally came to the realization that protecting its “inventions and innovations” in exchange for hoards of bad press and aggravated developers simply wasn’t the smart path to take. Blog away, developers.

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13 Comments

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  • Drytoast

    So if the NDA is still intact for unreleased software, doesn’t the problem still exist that if a developer comes up with an app that Apple sees as “competing” with their first-party software then they can refuse to allow it to be released?

    Isn’t that what spurred this whole issue?

  • impaler

    I really hope they get their act together and adopt a more open approach to everything iPhone. They have a wonderful phone. MobileMe has tons of potential. They should embrace openness, announce upcoming features, conduct public beta testing, and iron out bugs BEFORE release to us suckers who need it to “just work”.

  • dondgc

    @ Drytoast – this is unrelated to the issue of what gets approved for the App Store and what does not. As to the “unreleased software”, that refers to Apple’s unreleased software – not a developer’s project.

  • Drytoast

    Ah. That’s better I guess. Thanks for clearing that up, dondgc.

  • Black93300ZX

    It’s a little late for this, they were forced into it by the fact that Android lets you do ANYTHING with any app or anything within the OS. They let people see the light, see what it’s like to have true open-source, and then pull 1 of the many restrictions of the iPhone down? Not going to help, I’m going to Android when it comes out for AT&T.

  • relative

    wait… what ? So this is saying that there are no more restrictions on the apps for iphone? So no iphone police? If people spent countless hours trying to find out how to unlock the iphone, what makes you think that anyone wouldn’t make a virus that steals data from your iphone that is in the app? Contacts, notes, and all types of info could be at risk…spyware.I mean didn’t we buy the iphone because it wasn’t like a computer or like any other phone? someone clear this up for me cause I don’t understand. By opening the NDA it would be like Android right (ironic.. I think not)?

  • moose

    uh, isnt AT&T not even looking at android yet.it might be a long wait. i agree with you though.

  • kenji138

    I think Apple is really worried about the possible strengths of Android. Developers will only put up with so much before they defect to another platform.

    Does anyone remember the slew of developers who left making games for Nintendo 64 to work on games for the first Sony Playstation? Square Enix was the most vocal developer who complained that Nintendo had too many restrictions, and Sony gained all the benefits.

  • dondgc

    @ relative – they are easing the terms of the NDA, not opening up the OS. This just makes it easier for developers to talk to one another and share ideas. Such conversations have been prohibited under the NDA up to this point.

  • TRV$

    I wish it was this easy: One order of Android on a Touch screen ATT device. I’d also like a side of speech-to-text for my email/text messages. with Visual voicemail as my appetizer, and follow up with handwriting recognition for dessert. Thank you.

  • abi g1

    Omg apple u crack heads. They scared of the openness of the g1. I knew they would start with the bs of trying to be a lil more open.apples way isn’t the best way

  • Galvatron

    never is never was never will bee^^
    ther fasion obsesses imitators int inovators

  • http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

    Apple is adopting this because of the G1 but they will have to be a little more open to stop developers from defecting. Their approach of repeatedly cancelling apps is adverse to their own ambitions and they will realize that soon

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