Apple's NDA on SDK: An Opening For Others To Shine

Does anyone know the reason why Apple is still imposing the NDA after the iPhone SDK is now out of beta and the App Store is working cheerfully?

In this Los Angeles Times article about developer suffocation at the hand of Apple, this particular control is even beyond anything that has come out of Apple in recent memory.  Personally, I am waiting for books on the iPhone SDK to be release and, as LAT indicated, publishers are afraid they'll get the dark suits from Cupertino knocking on their doors with law suits.

One likely possibility is that there are things Apple is working on and they have not quite finished yet.  Basically, we're still in some sort of beta program and until Apple has all the i's dotted and t's crossed, the power that be at Apple has decreed no one will have the ability to talk about it.

However, this could be the opening other smartphone makers should welcome.  One of the early concerns was that Apple and iPhone was going to attract developers to its platform.  By declaring to be more open, it could be just enough to woo developers who previously only develop for the iPhone.

After all, Android, Symbian, and a couple of other Linux flavors are all open source projects.  Google has a tight control on Android but all these platforms can make the most of this opportunity to pour more effort in attracting more publishers and programmers.

Make no mistake.  This NDA will end and Jobs' RTF will take over once more.

Note:  $1.  According to the MacObserver, developers are subcontracting themselves to each other for $1 to get around the NDA.