In a web site posting dated today, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone will support third party applications. This is a dramatic departure from earlier strategy, in which Apple wanted to control the applications users had available on their phones. The desire to control applications while the product was still in the early acceptance phase made good sense, as does the decision to create a "stable" of developers adding to the knowledge and content base of the iPhone.
I attended IDF this year - Intel's Developers Conference, and also read an article not long after that had quantified developers conferences as bringing in around $30M each to their respective companies. No wonder Apple stock went up today after this announcement!
