Apple opening up it's iPhone platform to developers ? Good Idea or Bad Idea ?

Apple announced a few days ago that it was going to open up it's iPhone platform to developers. Let's consider what's behind the change in Apple's stand and what promoted it to do so and whether or not this is a good or bad idea.

First, Apple faces intense competition from Nokia, Motorolla and other phone makers. Considering the market size of Nokia and Motorolla both in US and overseas, Apple is a tiny player. Apple has to rely on the service providers to distribute their phone to a very large extent in the US. Cell phone service operators carry a big influence on the cell phone manufacturing companies. Given the hefty price that Apple charged for iPhone in the beginning, I think it was clear that they would have a tough sell against the other players. Apple needs to further differentiate its products to win the competition. Hence, I think it was a smart move in moving forward to open up it's platform for developers to create new applications. This lets them focus on the core phone product and leverage the large loyal geeky followers to deliver cool applications.

It is also possible that Apple sees Google as a potential threat in this market. If going by the rumors Google is in the stealth mode development of a killer gPhone then Apple better be concerned because Google's approach to conquering the market is exactly opposite of what Apple is used to doing. They adopt open API approach and encourage other developers to build applications using those APIs. Take a look at how Google entered the "map" market. There were already big players like Mapquest and yahoo. Was there room for another player ? What value add could Google provide if they brought in a very similar service? Google opened up their mapping API's enabling the users to use their creativity in putting this together. Hence again, I think Apple made a smart move in opening up their APIs.

What's next for Apple ? Will they open up their iPod or iMac platforms?