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When Apple first introduced the iPhone, it said the smartphone wouldn't be able to run third-party software. Apple cited security and stability issues (ultimately support costs, really) as reasons it wanted (and still wants) to maintain such tight control over what can run on the iPhone and its min version of the Mac OS X operating system. Although owners of PDAs and smartphones running on other platforms (e.g. the Palm OS, Symbian Windows Mobile) are well aware of these negatives, they wouldn't stand to lose the ability to customize their devices with the tens of thousands of third-party applications now available.

Not surprisingly, Apple plans for such a limit to the software that would be available for the iPhone caused a huge outcry.

So before the iPhone's release, Apple relented—saying it would allow so-called Web 2.0 applications created by others to run on the iPhone. As a result, a healthy number of hosted apps—those that run on a remote server, not on the iPhone itself—have been developed to run through the iPhone's Safari Web browser.

(Even with this development, Apple still will not allow Java and Flash-based applications or Web pages to run in Safari. This runs counter to the company's claim that its iPhone browser brings the true Web to the hand. If it did, you'd be able to run Flash-based animation and video - YouTube, for instance - through the browser, right?)

Web 2.0 Application List
To support these developers and promote their Web 2.0 titles, Apple recently posted a directory devoted to Web 2.0 applications. As of writing, it is composed of 215 such titles in eleven categories: Calculate, Entertainment, Games, News, Productivity, Search Tools, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities, and Weather. Apple is currently featuring the Facebook, Bejeweled, Fandango, Big Bang (a Sodoku game), and Ultralinga (dictionaries) applications for the at its new directory.

Yes, that's an impressive list, but it is one Apple, if it was truly serious about iPhone users getting the most out of their devices, should have started compiling as soon as the smartphone was released back in June. Meanwhile, many sites and blogs, such as the iPhone Source, have been doing just that for what is now well over a million iPhone users.

Apple has also posted a page with information to guide developers in creating Web 2.0 iPhone applications, along with a licensing agreement. There are also directions on how to get your application included in Apple's new WebApp directory.

Okay.

iBricked iPhones Unbricked - 3rd Parties Ride Again
Not content to be limited to serving up remote software, the hacking community, in addition to opening up the iPhone to network providers other than AT&T (ala T-Mobile in the US), jailbreaked the iPhone to run software natively (directly) in its operating system. Hundreds of these applications have been developed.

At first, Apple appeared to take a neutral stance on this, inadvertently helping to encourage tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people to feel comfortable loading this software on their iPhone. Then, a few weeks ago, Apple unleashed iPhone firmware update 1.1.1, which re-locked unlocked iPhones (turning them into iBricks in the process) and disabled all native applications. Apple also announced those who've modified their iPhone in any unauthorized way were in danger of having their warranty voided.

The negative press and attention Apple has received because of this is deafening, matching (and possibly exceeding) the iPhone price-cut fiasco that occurred only a few weeks earlier.

Hackers have spent the last couple of weeks developing workarounds to unbrick bricked iPhones and allow iPhones to run again. They appear to have succeeded.

The iPhone/iTouch Dev Team, a nonprofit group, has released a jailbreak that allows you to access files and install third-party software on the iPhone with firmware update 1.1.1 installed. The blog Tuaw.com says the detailed instructions for the hack are accessible here and here.

There's also an update to iPhoneSIMFree, a commercial unlock solution that is supposed to be able to restore and repair software on unlocked iPhones that were "damaged" with firmware upgrade 1.1.1.

If you don't want to fork over about $100 to do this and are somewhat technically proficient, then you may want to try a new 19 step unlock procedure, just published by a group calling itself the iPhone Elite Team.

Will Apple Make Nice With The Natives?
Doesn't all of this sound exhausting? If only Apple would stop blocking third-party software. This policy not only makes developers jump through hoops and keeps iPhone users from getting the most out of their device, it is becoming something of an albatross for Apple itself. An albatross, if Apple’s not careful with how it proceeds from here, that may not be so easy to shake. Its reputation among early adopters has been severely damaged already.

So is Apple paying attention? It appears it is.

According to recent reports, Apple may soon release an SDK (software development kit) or toolset to allow developers to create third-party applications that run natively on the iPhone. Of course, Apple being Apple, it won't be a system like what most smartphone users are used to, meaning these apps wouldn’t be widely available and nearly anyone can create them. Apple still wants to maintain tight control over what iPhone users' load onto their devices.

First, all titles must first receive Apple approval before going public.

Second, the software will only be available to iPhone users through iTunes.

Yes, it is a compromise that may leave a bad taste in some people's mouths. But if it is the only way Apple will allow the native application market to out come out of the shadows, we - as we assume most others - welcome it.

Heck, it'll make it far less likely the software you load doesn't crash or disable your iPhone, which should benefit the iPhone community especially during the first year or so of the device's availability.

However, Apple may want to consider loosening the development reigns up further down the road. It would only help the iPhone platform grow, as it has done for all other successful computer platforms, be them desktop (Mac and PC) or mobile (Palm, Windows Mobile & Symbian).

In the end, shouldn't what a company delivers in its products be a matter of giving consumers the choice they want and deserve?

Already, it is said many developers are working on porting their applications over to the iPhone, the iPod Touch and all other Mac OS X iPods. But they are doing so under "strict confidentiality agreements," according to 9 to 5 Mac . So we likely won't know what they are until Apple finally announces its new native application development system.

Of course, unlike with most of the Web 2.0 sites, the majority of the purported upcoming native applications will likely cost iPhone users a pretty penny. A penny Apple will reportedly get a good size chunk of.