To Our Developers
We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software. — We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's SDK-era NDA had been a running sore since the iPhone SDK opened for development in early 2008: developers could ship apps but couldn't legally publish code samples, write books, or even discuss techniques with each other. This open letter drops the NDA for released software while keeping it for unreleased work — a split Apple would later apply again when it kept a tight lid on unreleased hardware ahead of the iPhone 5's carefully staged reveal.
First-order effects
- Developers can now legally blog, write books, teach courses, and share sample code covering any iPhone OS feature that has already shipped — immediately unlocking the tutorial-and-publishing ecosystem that was frozen under the NDA.
- Apple keeps the NDA in force for unreleased software and hardware, so pre-launch leaks remain actionable while shipped APIs become common knowledge.
Second-order effects
- Third-party publishers, trainers, and community sites can build businesses on iPhone documentation, accelerating developer adoption of the platform at no cost to Apple — competitors' developer programs face pressure to offer similar openness.
- The shipped-vs-unreleased distinction becomes Apple's template: secrecy concentrates where it protects launches, as later seen when Apple policed leaked internals like the iBoot source code via DMCA takedown while insisting product security doesn't depend on source secrecy.
Third-order effects
- Platform owners increasingly treat developer-facing API knowledge as marketing rather than trade secret once features ship, reserving legal protection for pre-announcement work — a structural norm now standard across mobile ecosystems.
- The episode foreshadows recurring friction over how much control Apple exerts over its developer base, from the NDA itself to later moves like phasing out UDID access and restricting what tools developers may use.
The trend: Platform companies are learning to calibrate secrecy surgically — protecting unreleased work fiercely while treating shipped interfaces as open ecosystem fuel.