Steve Jobs has descended into classic Microsoftian FUD mode regarding iPhone openness.  Either he’s been spending too much time around Bill Gates, or perhaps FUD is the inevitable resort of market leaders seeking to maintain control.

Check out the blatant contradictions in Apple’s messages regarding the security of OS X and the danger of running third party apps on your iPhone.

On the one hand, Apple touts the security of OS X:

Mac OS X delivers the highest level of security through the adoption of industry standards, open software development and wise architectural decisions. Combined, this intelligent design prevents the swarms of viruses and spyware that plague PCs these days.

Apple also boasts that the iPhone runs a full version of OS X:

It’s REAL Safari, REAL OS X. We put a different user interface on it to work with a multi-touch screen… it’s an amazing amount of software.

Yet almost in the same breath Steve Jobs says–

This is an important tradeoff between security and openness. We want both. We’re working through a way… we’ll find a way to let 3rd parties write apps and still preserve security on the iPhone. But until we find that way we can’t compromise the security of the phone.

I’ve used 3rd party apps… the more you add, the more your phone crashes. No one’s perfect, and we’d sure like our phone not to crash once a day. If you can just be a little more patient with us I think everyone can get what they want.

“Until we find a way to run third party software reliably on OS X”– as if Macs hadn’t been been running third part software reliably for years. Is the iPhone’s version of OS X uniquely vulnerable to bad software, contrary to Job’s claims that the iPhone runs “real” OSX?

3rd party apps should not be able to crash OS X. As for security, Java based phones have long demonstrated a sandbox and signing model that protects user security. By and large sandboxes and signing have worked quite well to protect users.

Job’s FUD has little to do with protecting users and everything to do with protecting Apple and Cingular’s AT&T’s profit margins and control over users.