Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed that the company has signed up 200,000 developers for its iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) release thus far. Oppenheimer also said that Apple is signing up more developers each week. In mid-March, Apple announced that the iPhone SDK had been downloaded 100,000 times.
Oppenheimer called the response to the SDK “tremendous” and said that interest in developing enterprise applications for the iPhone is also going well. More than 400 higher educations are now creating applications for the iPhone, and more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies are actively creating software for the iPhone as well.
Apple plans to deliver a free update to the software that runs the iPhone — called iPhone 2.0 — in late June. That update will introduce the App Store, a new feature that will enable iPhone users to purchase, download and install third-party application software for the device. Apple also plans to release a similar update to the iPod touch — delivered for a nominal fee — that will enable iPod touch users to access the App Store as well.
Apple counted 1.7 million iPhones sold in the quarter and is now selling phones in Austria and Ireland. Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, reiterated to analysts who questioned him after Oppenheimer’s preamble that Apple is on track to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of the year.