Piper: Apple’s SDK Unveiling Inspires Confidence

      Piper Jaffray research group analysts, in a note out to clients, say that they’re excited by the prospects of Apple’s touch platform SDK, which was unveiled yesterday. Piper analysts say that the iPhone is now a “full-fledged mobile computing platform” and that Apple will release a “full family” of internet devices which will make use of the capable platform. The analysts also mention that Apple’s licensing of ActiveSync, enabling enterprise email, puts iPhone in direct competition with RIM’s Blackberry devices and that will lead to more unit sales for Apple.

     So far, Apple iPhone SDK details have received stellar reviews from analysts and the press in general with most commenting that it’s all more than they had hoped for. Here are some of the highlights of the features revealed yesterday:

– optimized OS-X kernel on iPhone allows Core Animation and OpenGL for graphics and Core Audio and OpenAL for audio plus access to accelerometer sensor and camera

– a new version of XCode to write and manage code with an iPhone Simulator to test code

– $99 to get listed on iTunes and Apple will split profits 30/70 with developers

– EA and Sega and others developing games, AOL and ePOCRATES and others developing apps for the platform

– Beta version released immediately, full iPhone firmware 2.0 and SDK to be released in June

D.S.