Apple misses it’s own September deadline for its promise to release the Push Notification System for the iPhone that we have been hearing so much about. We did have high hope there for a while because Push Notification was included, or at least the framework for it in a beta but was then removed. Speculation seems to point to the reason for this being that Apple wanted to focus on fixing the numerous problems already facing the iPhone such as 3G complications, MobileMe syncing problems, etc.
Back in June at the WWDC keynote, Apple SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall took the stage to discuss Apple’s answer to the lack of background applications on the iPhone. Many developers had expressed concern about the limitation, which could restrict the usefulness of certain applications, such as instant messenger clients.
Forstall presented a different solution to the problem. Apple would instead roll out a push notification system that apps could use to alert users when remote content had changed. Applications would also be able to use custom alert sounds and pop-up messages to notify users.
Maybe Apple has decided to take some extra time with Push Notification in order to get it right, rather than rush out likely buggy features just in order to make self-imposed deadlines.
Tags: iphone