iPhone Allows 3rd-Party Apps, Kind Of

There have been complaints by many in the business sector about the iPhone being all flash and no use — well, Apple wants to change that. The company announced today that it’s aiming for the iPhone to become a corporate email gadget and a portable video game machine for the busy and bored businessman.

The company has even teamed up with a venture capital firm to offer $100 million for developers who can come up with some nifty iPhone applications. The strategy is also known as, “do our work for us” — a common trend in companies who have realized that paying the general public less money to do their job is much easier than actually doing their job.

We all know the whole business surrounding the iPhone’s inability to use 3rd-party applications. It’s dumb. We hate it. It’s a Microsoftian move and one of the reasons that we’re resisting buying one. Well, the company has admitted as much, at least, kind of, and has released a beta version of a free software update that would let developers use the same tools as Apple developers to create new apps for the phone.

Okay, it’s a step in the right direction.

Apple will have to approve every application that’s made for the iPhone, but when they, they’ll be able to sell their applications through the “App Store” a new way for 3rd-party creators to approve and distribute iPhone games and programs.

The iPhone will now also be able to support Microsoft’s Exchange software, which addresses many of the issues that business people had with the phone and allows it to go into direct competition with smartphones, Blackberrys and so on.

We like the move, though it still bothers us that Apple has to approve any new application and it reeks of, again, Microsoftian-style control, but, at this point, we’ll take it.

Hell, maybe we’ll even consider getting one.

For more info, go to Apple.com.