One small step for Apple; one giant leap for mobile applications.

The iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) that is. This is a big deal because it now enables the development of 3rd party native applications. The ETA for when this update goes live is scheduled for June. But I won't be getting an iPhone till the 3G version is released.

Nevertheless, the release of the SDK is very comforting. Prior to this all that was available to developers was for them to develop web applications. While this is innovative, there are serious limitations to web apps, which mainly stem from issues of latency. And certain applications like Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and MSN Messenger / AIM /etc are just not suited to be a web application for those reasons.

Native code, made possible by the SDK, effectively eliminates such problems. Code that runs on the iPhone itself and not on web servers, has performance characteristics that are effectively instantaneous. Instant gratification is key for applications like IRC. After all, time is money, and who wants to be waiting around for web apps to load?

I used to express reservations about the lack of native applications stemming from the fact that (up to now) it had been impossible to develop iPhone applications due to the absence of an SDK. But it seems that Apple has listened, and released the much needed software development kit. This is big because the capabilities of the iPhone would now only be limited by its hardware and the phone network it connects to.

Indeed, I heard something along the lines of "the iPhone 2.0 will be bigger than the personal computer" from Apple's March 6 PR video. I am inclined to agree, as the enterprise updates that Apple is rolling out with the upcoming update will definitely capture a lion's share of the corporate market.

But what matters for me is that, along with this 2.0 update, the upcoming 3G iPhone will enable me to have high-speed access to all the information I need in a portable, mobile device. With the SDK, I would finally have instant mobile access to the applications I use, such as IRC and MSN. messenger.

Perhaps "mobile" is too weak a word to describe the magnitude of this update when it is finally combined with a 3G network. All the information on the internet, combined with the power of personal computer applications, accessed through a no-nonsense easy-to-use interface, and delivered through a portable device that fits in your pocket. Now that's what I call revolutionary.