I predict (or perhaps just hope for) the following for the launch of the iPhone/iPod Touch SDK, with varying unspecified degrees of certainty:
- Apps will be sold via the iTunes Store.
- Developers who have been working under NDA will have third-party apps ready to sell on the launch date.
- One of the launch apps will be an iChat app from Apple.
- There will be some sort of verification process for apps requesting access to the EDGE network. It may be possible to distribute apps not requesting such access over the normal Internets outside the jurisdiction of the iTunes Store.
- If it is possible to distribute apps without verification by Apple, or at least on a free/open source basis, a version of Adium or some newly minted libpurple based chat client will appear very quickly.