I cannot claim to be a developer, but I have been watching the whole iPhone application development issues with interest. As of today’s news, it appears that the iPhone development process is like this:

1. Ask Apple for permission to make an application.
2. Sign a non-disclosure agreement.
3. Invest time and money into an iPhone application.
4. Ask Apple for permission to sell or give away your application.
5. If Apple says YES: start making money and hope Apple does not change their minds.
   If Apple says NO: shut up and deal with it. If you say anything, Apple can sue you, further raising the wasted investment money.

It just makes no sense.

For months now, Apple, the company known for being good at generating a lot of good free PR, has received an almost continuous stream of negative press, first over MobileMe, then the 2.0 software, then over iPhone applications being semi-arbitrarily not approved, and now Apple has extended the NDA so developers cannot say why their applications were not approved. Essentially, Apple has responded to push back over a too tightly controlled system by controlling it even tighter. Worse, Apple managed to time this perfectly with the release of Android, a completely open platform.

Apple has not shot itself in the foot. They shot themselves in the leg or heart. If Apple does not loosen up on their NDA policies soon, developers may leave the iPhone for the much more open Android platform or another more open platform.  If the developers leave, Apple has suddenly doomed a potentially promising and incredibly successful platform. The only question that remains to be seen is how far iPhone developers are willing to be pushed? My guess: not much  more.