Apple Announces iPhone Roadmap

On Thursday, at a Town Hall meeting held at its headquarters, Apple announced the future of the iPhone and third party application development. By far, the most notable announcement was that Apple’s iPhone will finally support Microsoft Exchange.

Apple has licensed Active Sync from Microsoft and will support push Exchange email and synchronization of contacts and calendar information. The iPhone will also support other features such as remote device wipe, 802.1x and WPA2 security, and Cisco VPN services. These features will not be available to the public until Apple releases the new 2.0 firmware update, which is expected to occur sometime in June 2008 (a beta version was sent out to developers for testing).

Many corporate users have resisted making the switch to the popular phone due to lack of Exchange support. What remains to be seen is if Windows Mobile users that have been using popular Windows Mobile cell phones - like the AT&T Tilt and the HTC Touch on Sprint and Alltel - will make the switch to Apple’s OS once the update is available.

Apple also unveiled its plan for third-party developers to develop applications. Apple will sell outside developers’ apps through the new App Store coming in June. Developers will pay a $99 fee to register and will set the price for their new applications. They’ll get 70% of the sale and Apple will get the remaining 30%. Apps announced Thursday include games from SEGA and an AIM client.