Apple COO drops iPhone SDK hints at symposium

During the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium today, Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook dropped some interesting hints about Apple's iPhone "software road map" event March 6, where the company is expected to discuss it's official SDK for the platform.

Saying that the iPhone is "a platform not a product," Cook said that he thinks the SDK will "broaden the platform more, to the point where the only limit will be people's imagination."

He also said:

"We started by getting developers to focus on Web 2.0 apps. There's over a thousand of these today. But people also want to do more than that. As we got into the phone more and more, it became clear that we should release and SDK. This will make the product even more compelling. We're super excited [...]

The Goldman Sachs moderator asked "Any idea when we'll see the first iPhone third-party apps?" to which Cook responded:

"We're going to go into some more details at the event next week. I don't want to take away the element of surprise."

Cook also made some interesting comments about jailbreaking and unlocking

"There will always be some level of hacking. There will always be a case where someone wants to run on a carrier. There are very few people who have unlocked the iPhone for use on a carrier other than AT&T in the US. [...] I look at this 'problem' with a little bit of a smile. Having people stepping over each other for the phone isn't a bad thing."

Finally, Cook said that the best thing the company can do to thwart unlockers is offer the iPhone in more countries.

"We're going to (fight back) with software and some other ways, but offering the iPhone in more (geographical areas) is our best bet."

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