FUN FUTURES
A lot of good things for Apple are likely in the long-term, following it's release of a long-awaited software development kit (SDK) for third-party developers yesterday. In particular, this marks the transformation of it's iPod and iPhone franchises into a mobile platform that could rival the coming of the personal computer a few decades ago (see the Apple presentation here, and the Techmeme discussion here).
In the near-term, it allows Apple to make the iPod Touch and iPhone more useful with Enterprise applications, and enable a rich universe of applications in almost every genre imaginable, when it releases it's iPhone 2.0 software as a free download in late June. At the very least, it's upcoming support for Microsoft Exchange and direct push technologies, starts to pit the iPhone against RIMM's Blackberry devices.
Particularly impressive in the roll-out yesterday where the types of games that could be run on the iPhone/iPod using the built-in motion sensor of the device (aka accelerometer), as a Wii-type motion driven controller. Here's the clip where the Sega rep demonstrates Super Monkeyball running on the iPhone:
What's interesting is that the developer cites this a "console-class" application, as opposed to a game one would play on a hand-held.
This new mobile platform strategy by Apple has meaningful long-term potential. And it's not all just fun and games.
DISCLOSURE: I've remain a long-term investor in Apple securities.
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