How Will Apple's NDA Removal Impact iPhone Owners?

Apple has lifted strict rules governing its iPhone NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) policy yesterday relenting on its traditionally tight code of silence surrounding product development. IPhone developers rejoiced at the lifted restriction seeing Apple's NDA requirement as silly - if not a hindrance.

Apple explained its decision stating: "The NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success."

Is Apple feeling Google on its tail?

With Google's launch of its Android powered mobile phone, T-Mobile's G1, Apple may have to try harder to keep iPhone developers happy or risk seeing them switch allegiance to the Google Android platform development community. Google offers through Android an open-source mobile operating system and allows developers to freely develop, distribute and collaborate on applications they code.

Before yesterday, an iPhone developer had to agree not to talk about Apple's development kit or the work they did with it before they could be able to download iPhone's SDK. Thousands of programmers were affected by this policy.They were not able to talk to the press, or write in trade journals. Not even among themselves - and this was a major barrier for them to progress faster and share programming techniques or collaborate with other developers.

Apple had maintained the NDA was in place to help maintain Apple's competitive edge by keeping mobile rivals in the dark about application development and Apple's iPhone app approval process.

What's to come then?

Free collaboration and discussion among developers can only lead to
great things for the iPhone. We are most likely to have higher quality software, more documentation and more competition, all in the the benefit of us, the consumers. And before you know it, we will actually be able to leave reviews in the already crowded AppStore, so that we know what we are buying and what others thought about it.

But don't worry, the happier we are about it, the happier is Apple
about us buying more apps for the iPhone, and more publicity can only lead to more iPhone sales. But isn't this how the world goes round?

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