Apple backs off on iPhone NDA

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 02 October 2008 05:05

Business IT - Technology

"It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

"However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software."

Developers will be offered a new agreement "within a week or two" that will free them from the non-disclosure restriction in respect of released software.

As with Mac OS X, developers will still be under NDA with regard to any prerelease versions of the iPhone software (or information about that software) that they receive.

Is Apple's change of heart related to growing developer interest in Google's Android platform now that the first handset is available ? That's certainly a viable theory.

"Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter," concluded Apple's letter.

Translation: "Yeah, we were wrong. Sorry it took so long to come to our senses."