Yesterday, David Pogue posted a handy overview and interesting projection on NYT Blogs concerning the recent beta-test form release of the iPhone SDK and the announcement of iPhone 2.0, which is scheduled to appear at the end of June.

In the post Pogue suggests that the iPhone is chasing the BlackBerry by pointing out that the new 2.0 software will tap into Microsoft Exchange, the e-mail distribution system used by hundreds of thousands of corporations. This feature will allow users to receive “push” e-mail, meaning that messages will appear in real time on the iPhone. And when someone changes the calendar or address book on your computer at work, your iPhone will be automatically, wirelessly updated, wherever you happen to be.

Pogue goes on to assert that the new SDK, which enables programmers to write authorized, tested, legitimate, and often free software for the iPhone, will give birth to the “third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone.” There will be thousands of iPhone programs, covering every possible interest, making the iPhone a valuable tool for far more than simple communications tasks; “it will be the first widespread pocket desktop computer.”

Pogue, of course, acknowledges that there are add-on programs for the Treo, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, but claims that they’ll never achieve the ubiquity or popularity of iPhone apps because Apple will preinstall the iPhone Apps Store on every phone. This will provide an online catalog of iPhone programs, which you can browse, download and install wirelessly, wherever you happen to be. In addition, Apple intends to be the exclusive source of all iPhone apps. You won’t be able to get iPhone add-ons from the usual shareware sites like Download.com, Shareware.com, VersionTracker.com, or even from the developers’ own Web sites.

Pogue writes, “The release of iPhone 2.0 is over three months away, but I’ll stick my neck out and make a prediction: it will be a gigantic success, spreading the iPhone’s popularity both upward, into the corporate market, and downward, into the hands of the masses. iPhone 2.0 will turn this phone into an engineering tool, a game console, a free-calls Skype phone, a business tool, a dating service, an e-book reader, a chat room, a database, an Etch-a-Sketch…and that’s on Day One.”

Be sure to check out Pogue’s entire post, “Hello BlackBerry, Meet the iPhone.”