http://lesscode.co.nz/interface

This is an iPhone app that lets one use a GUI to build a prototype iPhone app right on the phone. Exports to Xcode. Noticed this on the "featured apps" list, which is particularly interesting: it's a featured app, which means the folks at the app store not only approve, but think it's cool. 

This is thus far the closest thing I've seen to an on-device development environment on the app store. 

It's interesting in that it looks a lot like an omni-app, except to share what you've made, you have to go through the app store, which means Apple has it's cake and eats it too.

Obviously what this does is spit out application templates, ala Interface Builder. So they're "mockups," not actual apps. Yuck:)

I wrote the list because I think we might be able to learn something about Apple's comfort levels with certain approaches from this app. 

If an omni app is okay as long as it can't load code over the Internet, for example, I could see a (somewhat crippled) Etoys shipping. Kids might be able to make apps, export them, and their teachers might be able to submit them to the app store. It sucks, but it's a place to start. 

I have no idea whether or not what makes this app "okay" is that it exports to Xcode/Obj-C. More likely, it only let's the user describe interface, excluding logic. In that case, maybe there isn't much that we can learn about Apple from it. 

In any event, I thought I'd share.