Apple Lifts NDA: iPhone Developers Unmuzzled

by jordan | October 5, 2008 at 06:20 am

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Emerging pressure from competitors usch as Android/HTC and Symbian/Nokia, Apple has lifted its non-disclusure agreement, which developers were forced to adhere to in order to gain access to the iPhone platform: an agreement barring them from discussing the programming with which they were tinkering.

Both Android and Symbian use an open-source development kit, and Symbian itself is open-source as a platfrom since Nokia purchased it.

Developers don't really like to be told what to do, so Apple flirts with development irrelevance by not giving up its stranglehold on discussion.

In a letter to iPhone application developers announcing the NDA removal, Apple admitted its policy was a hindrance to iPhone's success, since it prohibited developers from discussing programming tips with one another, among other reasons.

"We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect," Apple wrote in a letter published on its developer site. "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."