Apple makes a great computer, but it did not really attract a lot of hackers. That is the problem with closed hardware systems like Apple. But I learned recently that the real problem for developers was with the legal issues.

The Apple NDA, which every developer has to agree to in order to download the iPhone SDK, forced developers not to talk about Apple’s technology. But this also prevents developers from learning from the mistakes and time spent by other developers. The way that the Apple’s NDA was phrased forced developers to essentially keep reinventing the wheel since they were not legally allowed to share solutions. It was so bad that the best place for developers to network with other iPhone developers is at Google groups. As Homer Simpson would say, “D’oh”.

Finally Apple is catching up to reality. They have changed the NDA and are even including forums on their own site. It only took three months or so.

Tags: Apple, NDA

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Business Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.