Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - Even though I’ve already talked a little bit about it, I still can’t get over the fact that Apple is trying to sell all of us on the fact that third-party application support on the iPhone means building a Web 2.0 application that can run on top of the Safari engine. A third-party application on a phone isn’t just some Web site that’s treated like an application - it’s much more than that. I was truly hoping that Apple would open up the iPhone more than they are, but they’ve let me and many other Apple fans down with this development.

OS X is a platform that can be developed for, and since the iPhone is sporting a customized version of OS X, the same rules should apply. This mobile device that they’ve developed is more than just a cell phone - it’s a computer. Therefore, it should be treated as such, especially since I can already foresee an untold number of MacBook and MacBook Pro users relying less and less on their laptops and more and more on the iPhone for basic Internet tasks. It’s portable, it’s always with you, and it’s perfect for development.

Apple doesn’t see it that way, though. They keep using the same tired excuse that third-party applications on the iPhone could affect its reliability and security. So? We still should be able to do what we want with this expensive gadget. Other smartphones seem to be doing just fine with third-party applications. If we immediately supported this mentality, then we might as well not allow third-party applications on OS X, either. After all, they truly could affect the reliability and security of the operating system. When you put things in this perspective, you begin to realize how unsubstantiated and hypocritical this excuse is.

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By telling us that third-party applications on the iPhone are Web 2.0 applications, Apple is basically saying that the Web browser is the new operating system, which is something that many analysts have been saying recently. This just proves their point. Even though the iPhone contains a rich OS X framework, it’s presented in a "look but don’t touch" manner. Developers of third-party applications for OS X that want to program for the iPhone will have to start getting used to Safari, and that’s not always going to be pretty.

With all of this third-party development hoopla, it’s clear that Apple wants to officially maintain (demand) what appears on your main application menu. Even though you’ll be paying either $499 or $599 for an iPhone, Apple apparently wants to make it known that it’s still their phone. At least it looks like they’ll be delivering some new applications for it.

In fact, it was just announced that a twelfth icon will be added to the menu when the iPhone launches, and it represents a YouTube video player that actually looks pretty cool. It looks and acts like a real application, and hopefully the applications that the developer community creates will really be treated as such and feel like actual applications instead of just bookmarks in a Web browser.

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