iPhone and iPod Touch's developers to verify identities with digital signatures

We know that in the near future, we’ll have real, authentic, genuine third-party app support for iPhone and the iPod Touch. There’s no secret that I’m a fan of the hardware that Apple has developed, and I’m looking forward to the opening of the systems.

And it’s looking like Apple will use an ID scheme to keep track of who’s writing what, to ensure quality apps and discourage malware.

This is a nice compromise, considering not long ago, Jobs himself said 3rd party applications would only be supported via Safari. A tracking system to keep the devs honest and the software clean? I’d buy that for a dollar.

Apple VP: third-party iPhones apps to use digital signature [Apple Insider]