Jobs admits to iPhone blacklist

By Shaun Nichols

Aug 12 2008 4:01PM

Apple does have the ability to remotely manage applications on the iPhone, said chief executive Steve Jobs..

The Apple co-founder said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the popular handset does, in fact, contain a mechanism that will allow the device to contact Apple's web site and delete software which the company has deemed harmful.

"Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull," Jobs told the paper.

The admission confirms a situation first reported nearly two weeks ago by independent researcher Jonathan Zdziarski, who discovered a file in the iPhone's firmware which links to an Apple xml page containing a blank "black list" for malicious applications.

It is not known whether the file Zdziarski uncovered manages malicious applications was the exact protection tool mentioned by Jobs.

On a lighter note, Jobs also told the Journal that sales of iPhone applications were booming, The CEO estimates that the company is averaging some US$1 million per day in sales from the App Store.

The company keeps 30 per cent of sales revenue with the remainder being paid to the developer. The company is said to have a similar deal with record labels for the iTunes music store.

Jobs said that the company paid roughly US$21 million to developers so far. The top ten developers on the service have hauled in some US$9 million since the store was first launched in July.

"I've never seen anything like this in my career for software," Jobs was quoted as saying.

"Who knows, maybe it will be a US$1bn marketplace at some point in time."