Apple's always been known for its amusingly-conservative disclaimers (you can't use iTunes to "design a nuclear weapon," for example) and it looks like the products-liability team at the Fruit has had their way with the iPhone SDK agreement as well, inserting a provision specifically prohibiting developers from creating apps "marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes." Yep, that's right -- no real-time route guidance (or, uh, fleet management) allowed. That'd be a huge bummer -- except, of course, that TomTom has already come out and said that its app is
ready to go on the iPhone. Assuming TomTom used the SDK and not the jailbreak toolchain, we'd bet that Apple is just covering its ass here and that it's worked out an agreement with TomTom to pass along any liability -- you can bet Steve doesn't want to get sued when iPhone users start careening into
sandpiles and into
oncoming trains. We'll see for sure when the
App Store finally launches, though -- until then, it's all just cheap speculation.
Update: Astute commenter Austin points out that these terms are copied almost word-for-word from the
Google Maps API terms -- which means that TomTom and others are probably free to use their own maps to do real-time guidance.
[Via
BoingBoing Gadgets]
posted Jun 11th 2008 11:03AM
Wow, this looks like bad news for fans of GPS turn-by-turn navigation, but I think there's a caveat somewhere. Isn't GPS one of the main selling points for iPhone 3G? I'm betting that Apple has a separate agreement/license for apps to use the "real" GPS vs. triangulation/wifi location in the current API. These restrictions are probably designed to prevent applications from attempting "real" location services on devices that don't support them (original iPhone.)
Besides, didn't TomTom already announce "real-time route guidance" navigation software for the iPhone 3G?
No, TomTom used a jailbroken iPhone. It breaks the rules of the SDK, so it probably won't be released.
did you really think apple would let you do everything you wanted with the Iphone 3G version? Its was the same deal with the 1st Iphone. Ill just hold out til jailbreak.
One of the features of the SDK is to provide access to location information using the GoogleMaps functionality.
If software developers could use Google Map data in their GPS programs, there would be no reason to buy a license for the map data from Navteq and TeleAtlas, which are the companies that license the map data (with restrictions) to Google in the first place. If software providers could use that map data without a license in their own navigation programs, Navteq and TeleAtlas wouldn't remain in business for very long.
My take is that any developer can write their own GPS application for the iPhone 3G if and only if they license (and include) the map data from Navteq or TeleAtlas. That's what TomTom does to provide their software. I think Apple would provide a waiver in that instance.
My post with more information about real time navigation on Iphone: http://twurl.cc/202