As we’re all getting more insight into the iPhone program, it is coming to light that some folks are fortunate in getting into the program and others aren’t. There is a lot of armchair quarterbacking of how Apple should be playing the game, but I suspect is delays of getting companies and developers signed up is a function of the number staff folks available to support the developers during the beta period.

Given the number of folks out there without early access, I feel that I have to step up to the plate and deliver a high quality, application that meets the high stands of an iPhone application.

There is a lot of angst by some blog commentators regarding Apple’s decision to take a break from adding new features and concentrate on performance and stability. The common theme is, why should I have to pay for performance and stability it should be free!

While I agree that stability should be free guess what? It is free. That is what all the third digit updates are about. And in some cases new features are added and performance is improved for free. I think Apple is holding up its end of the deal. But what about pure performance improvements?

Performance is a feature of a working system. It takes a great deal of effort to identify, assess, engineer and test performance improvements. In fact, a proper product organization considers performance a feature. It needs to identify where performance is key to a product, plan for time to investigate performance improvements, implement the performance enhancements and then test. Then, when performance has been achieve, it needs to be marketed just like any other feature.

I give Apple product managers and sr. management credit for standing up and saying that performance is a feature, and treat it like any other feature. It’s a Think Different kind of move.

As a developer of iPhone applications my job is more challenging because Apple has set the bar so high, that you must have incredibly functional applications and they must be good looking. There has to be a WOW factor to the application.

This is a challenge for any application developer because we are all new to the platform. If you are a seasoned Cocoa developer you have a leg up on the mechanics of iPhone development, but what do you really know about hand held devices? What about other mobile software developers? Sure they understand the concepts of mobile computing, but the development environments are totally new. Then there's that WOW factor thing. Windows mobile applications just don't have that, so those developers will need to get into the groove of iPhone development. If you are starting from the ground floor, you have to learn how develop for mobile devices and learn the Apple way of software development. What could be more exciting!

With this said, I believe that the initial round of iPhone and iPod Touch applications that will be available at the "grand opening" will be nothing short of stellar. By bringing on third party application developers, Apple has stacked the deck in goal to dominate the mobile device market.