Talk about lockdown. In a move that should make anti-trust litigators foam at the mouth, Apple has reportedly banned the development of any music player application for the iPhone.
The new iPhone SDK apparently restricts applications from accessing iTunes functions, effectively prohibiting developers from accessing the iTunes music library or expanding on the iPhone’s music-player. That means services like Amazon and eMusic will most likely be unable to create an iPhone application that allows iPhone users to purchase and download music outside of Apple’s iTunes (desktop or iPhone-based).
We’ll have to see how this pans out. The banning of any application accessing the iPhone’s music files or the development of an music applications outside of iTunes may be a veritable pitcher of sweat tea to the buzzing swarms of lawyers waiting to file suit against Apple. But, if Steve Jobs’ past decisions are any indicator, he might just try to lock down the iPhone’s music capabilities. The iPhone’s music capabilities are pretty impressive as it is already.
[Via: MacWorld]