Apple to developers: Conform or die

In an email blast to registered iPhone developers this afternoon, Apple warned developers to test their apps with iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 right away. Beginning immediately, any submission to the App store that doesn't work right under the latest beta will not be approved. (Gosh, I hope the beta doesn't have any bugs in it.)

In addition, when the production 3.0 comes out for everyone this summer, existing apps that aren't compatible face removal from the store at Apple's discretion. Here's the full text:

App Store submissions now being reviewed on iPhone OS 3.0

Test your app with iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 today.

All apps must be compatible with iPhone OS 3.0 Millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers will move to iPhone OS 3.0 this summer. 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.

Existing apps in the App Store should already run on iPhone OS 3.0 without modification, but you should test your existing apps with iPhone OS 3.0 to ensure there are no compatibility issues. After iPhone OS 3.0 becomes available to customers, any app that is incompatible with iPhone OS 3.0 may be removed from the App Store.

Begin testing now iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 and iPhone SDK 3.0 beta 5 are now posted to the iPhone Dev Center. Start testing today to ensure your application runs on iPhone OS 3.0. Visit the iPhone Dev Center for additional development information including iPhone SDK Release Notes for iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 and Getting ready for iPhone OS 3.0.

Some developers are already crying foul. Alasdair Allan comments:

It is a burden if you only have one development machine. Applications developed under SDK 3.0 can not be submitted to the App Store review process, even if they were developed under the SDK 3.0 but targeted at 2.x.

That means, if you only have one Mac to develop on, or one iPhone or iPod touch to test on, then you're effectively locked out from submitting new applications to the App Store until Apple release 3.0 to the public, or possibly only slightly before if we're that lucky. Effectively this brings a halt to app releases or updates to existing apps already in the store from small developers until much later this year...