Novell today released MonoTouch 1.0, a tool designed to let programmers who use Microsoft's .NET Framework develop applications for the popular iPhone and iPod devices. MonoTouch is the first tool to come from the Mono Project targeted at a mobile platform.

The Mono Project is an effort organized by Novell to bring .NET and Windows-centric development languages and platforms to Linux, Unix, Macintosh and other operating environments.

Miguel de Icaza, founder of the Mono Project and a Novell VP, said the decision to develop MonoTouch came from a campaign by .NET developers seeking an alternative tool to develop for the iPhone.

"We were bombarded with requests," We are seeing a lot of iPhones work their way into the enterprise yet the number of people willing to make the commitment to bring in people with Objective-C skills is low," said Joseph Hill, a Novell product manager.

So what does this mean to you? It means that “hopefully” yet again those c# and vb skill set will enable you to program the iphone..

More to come on this for sure!