In a surprising turn of events, Apple has decided to eliminate the non-disclosure agreement that forced developers to keep coding details under wraps, as well as their talks with the Mac maker. Unreleased applications, however, will fall under Apple's NDA at least until they are released.

From Apple's Developer Connection page,

To Our Developers

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

Apple's move comes in light of several developer complaints asserting that Apple had not properly disclosed all the terms and conditions they were supposed to obey while collaborating with the company. Recently, several iPhone developers submitted their apps for approval on the App Store, only to be rejected by Apple on various accounts.

In most cases, though, the company claimed said apps conflicted with the functionality of its own programs / services, and thus could not allow their entrance on the venue. This created mass confusion among the developers who carefully (and specifically) sifted though Apple's NDA so they wouldn't cross the company. As it turns out, to avoid even more confusion, Apple decided to do the right thing for everyone and has finally dropped the burden that was the NDA.