BEIJING, March 7(Xinhuanet) -- Apple Inc. unveiled its long-promised software developer's kit(SDK) for iPhone on Thursday and, as expected, announced support for Microsoft Exchange, allowing enterprises to bring the hip and powerful device into their corporate folds for the first time.

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs also announced a new version of the iPhone software scheduled for release in June, which could be a prelude to a new version of the iPhone.

Apple Product Marketing manager Phil Schiller gestures during a news conference at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Thursday, March 6, 2008. Apple Inc. said Thursday that the next software update for iPhones will enable them to work with Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange software, which is widely used by businesses to handle and secure e-mail.Photo Gallery>>>

    Apple released the SDK for public download as well as an iPhone emulator for the Mac that would allow software makers to test their apps out on a program that simulates the iPhone's interface.

    The iPhone 2.0 software, however, only went out to a select group of development partners and enterprises as a Beta release, allowing Apple's partners to get a leg up on development on a real device.

    The initiative with the biggest immediate impact, though, is Apple's licensing of Microsoft's ActiveSync, which allows the e-mail applications running natively on the iPhone to synch securely to Exchange servers, opening a potentially huge market for the iPhone in the business community.

    "We're excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch," Jobs said in a statement.

    Apple has retooled its Cocoa application framework of Mac OS X for the iPhone and its touch-screen interface. It has also provided access to most of the iPhones application programming interfaces (APIs), including all of the iPhone's touch and gesture controls, location function and multimedia capabilities, on device storage and even the accelerometer, the sensor that determines what orientation the user is holding the device in.

    Jobs said all developers would be treated equally, however, and that all sales would fall under a 70/30 revenue split favoring the developer. What's more, he said, Apple will handle hosting and marketing as well as the entire billing process through the iTunes account, and it will distribute developers' cuts on a monthly basis.

    As far as Apple's control over the content, Jobs laid out only a few broad parameters: no porn, no apps that breach others' privacy, no bandwidth-intensive apps and nothing malicious or illegal. But Jobs did lay out one huge caveat: Apple would also restrict applications "unforeseen."

    (Agencies)