Wednesday, March 31, 2010 by Adrian

Do you have a brilliant idea for a new application for the iPad? Do you have access to an iPad or can you write your idea using emulator software? ...In less than one week? And finally, are you willing to submit the app after developing it solely on a simulator in the hope that it will work on real hardware?  If so then you could see your idea put into practise, as since last Friday, Apple have been accepting designs for new iPad apps.

All existing and would-be iPad developers have been given until 5pm  Saturday 27^th March to submit their app designs by uploading them onto iTunes Connect. In an email sent to all registered developers, Apple explained that they will review the submissions and initially give developers feedback on "its readiness for the grand opening." They will later send information about submitting apps for final review before the iPad ships.

In her blog on the subject for Mashable, Christina Warren includes a copy of the email sent by Apple: The "grand opening" refers to the opening of the iPad App store in the US, which was only recently revealed to be scheduled for 3^rd April. Indeed, every aspect of this open-call to designers still comes wrapped in the company's typical secrecy. To protect the product before its release date, most developers have been instructed to use the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 emulator software. The few companies with access to an iPad are forced to sign a number of demanding agreements including a ten-paged pact, and to put in place very particular security arrangements before Apple will allow them to participate. Businessweek detailed these measures last week , reporting that "Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad.

To ensure that it can't be removed, the iPad must also remain tethered to a fixed object, said the people, who asked not to be named because their plans for the iPad have not been made public. Apple ( AAPL) won't send out an iPad until potential partners send photographic evidence that they've complied."

Whether or not the lengths they are going to to prevent leaks about the product will be effective, if, as predicted by Piper Jaffray's analyst Gene Munster, Apple generate $4.6 billion next year from app sales alone, one can begin to understand why the company would put such high importance on protection. That's also assuming that there will not be further hiccups in production, which seems to have already been the case, as reported by the Register

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