iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 was only released for general consumption yesterday, and already Apple is rocking our collective faces off with big news. While a cool new feature being uncovered would be great, what Apple has in store for would-be iPhone application submitters is a bit more challenging. Effective today, Apple will no longer be accepting any iPhone or iPod touch applications that are not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0.
According to an email sent to developers, "Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0. If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved." While this may make sense at first glance, consider that OS 3.0 does not yet have a release date and developers might be pushed to spend time and energy tweaking apps against an unstable OS base. Also, any devs who only ship free apps will now have to pony up $99 to join the beta if they want to debug their apps against the new version.
Further, it seems that Apple might be removing existing applications from the App Store, once iPhone OS 3.0 is released, if it is found that they are not compatible with the new operating system. So grab your Twitter clients and flame-throwers, it's gripin' time! Update: iPhone Developer Program enrollment is required for App Store application distribution; regardless of whether the application is free or paid, the enrollment fee applies, and any developers with apps in the store have already paid their $99 for access to the beta.