Finally … a little hint of potential good news on support for third party applications for the iPHone.

Meanwhile, Jobs acknowledged that third-party developers have started to produce several intriguing, yet unofficial iPhone applications. He said Apple is looking at some of them closely, especially those that don’t require a connection to the Internet. It’s likely that those applications would be the first of any to receive an official endorsement from Apple, according to Jobs’ comments, as those that require Internet access could threaten the ‘high standard’ of experience customers have come to expect with the iPhone.

The quote above is from an Apple Insider piece covering a Q&A session held with Steve Jobs after the iPhone UK launch announcements.

If their take on Jobs’ comments is accurate, those are very encouraging words – for iPhone users craving a richer selection of programs (especially those who have not ‘hacked’ their phone already), and for the whole iPhone development community.

Any level of ‘endorsement’ or support from Apple would be a good start. Hopefully once this process starts, then it will quickly gather momentum and we’ll be one step closer to seeing an SDK for the iPhone, more formal support for those who are out there creating apps for it now, and more encouragement for established mobile software publishers to jump in with iPhone versions of their applications.

I wonder how many leading Windows Mobile publishers will jump into the iPhone arena if and when it does open up properly …