After today's special event Apple held a Q&A session for the press...
Q. What does the 100m do for the iPhone community, exactly?
A. "It's because they believe there's an opportunity to invest in the community. We love young innovative developers, and they love it because that's the business they're in too. It helps the whole ecosystem surrounding the iPhone."
Q. Do you think RIM should be worried?
A. "You should ask them... we're not sending them a message, we're sending customers and developers a message that we're trying to serve their needs. Remember, the iPhone's been out less than a year, this stuff will be shipping right around the one year anniversary to every iPhone customer."
Q. "What sort of safeguards are built in to ensure security?"
A. "This is a big concern - it's a dangerous world out there. We've tried to strike a good path here, on one side you've got a closed device like the iPod, it always works. You don't have to worry about 3rd party apps mucking it up. On the other side you've got a Windows PC where people spend a lot of time every day making it usable. We want to take the best of both: reliability of the iPod, but the ability to run 3rd party apps. They get an electronic certificate... if they write a malicious app we can track them down and tell their parents."
Q. "How likely will there be a VoIP?"
A. "We will only limit over cellular -- if you want to dev them for WiFi, that's fine."
Q. "Can people choose multiple sync methods? Let's say you select Exchange, will you also be able to use iCal as well?"
A. "Yes, you can have multiple accounts, multiple calendar accounts, multiple contact DBs. Only a single Exchange account at time though."
Q. "Isn't the fact that Apple is the sole distributor of apps likely to cause monopoly issues?"
A. "We think this is going to be a boon for developers, there's no other way to get an app in front of every single iPhone user." Just to make it a little clearer -- we don't intend to make money off the app store; the split with the music companies is about the same. We give all the money to the content owners and the developers here, and the 30% that pays for the store, that will be great.
Q. Will SIM unlock software be considered software not allowed in the app store?
A. Yes.
Q. "What's the nominal fee on the iPod touch?"
A. We'll set that in June, we don't look at this as a profit opportunity.
Q. "What do you see as being the IT ease of use? So IT managers can convert from BlackBerry to iPhone?"
A. "It uses ActiveSync, a familiar system, but also has tools for managing these devices."
Q. "Is this an international rollout? Anything preventing open source apps?"
A. "This is international, but not an open-source project. It's a for-profit project only, even though it's a free update."
Q. "How would an entperprise distribute internal applications?"
A. "Working on a special app for internal enterprise applications, it's being worked on."
Q. "What's relationship with the carriers? Are you working with the carriers on the App Store?"
A. "We have great relationships with our carriers -- we struck a new kind of relationship where Apple is responsible on the phone. We define the software on the phone, we run the dev program, we distribute the apps! This is our program, and we're running it. (Side Q: no rev share with carriers on apps?) We don't go into it, but we like to see the revenue going the other way."