Macworld editor Jason Snell took an excellent look at just what's going wrong in the iTunes App Store. http://www.macworld.com/article/135729/2008/09/app_store_policies.html Can Apple make things right? Thoughts? blakespot
nice article find even if apple continues on this path of ambiguity in regards to what gets approved and rejected, i don't believe it will really affect the platform as a whole. the author believes that creativity would ultimately suffer and developers would turn away from the platform but let's face it, there are TONS of developers out there. the developers who are turned off by apple's strategy (or incompetence) and opt not to develop for the iphone anymore will be losing alot of potential $$$. but more importantly, since there are so many programmers out there, some other developer will fill the creative void. the bottom line is that the app store is still in its infancy, being only about 2 months old, and there are obvious growing pains. However, i believe that the app store can only get better with time.
I think that the issue is one of communication. Apple seems to lack the ability to make a statement when events such as this occur. The same thing happened when Apple put out the buggy firmware 2.0 and had issues with MobileMe. It fixed the issue ultimately and did communicate through e-mails from Steve Jobs to random people who were complaining. If it came out initially and stated that it was aware of the issues and that an update would come out soon, everybody would understand. We all knew that Apple was trying to get out a new phone, MobileMe, a new firmware, a final SDK, and the App Store at the same time. As a user, I just wanted some acknowledgment and reassurance from Apple! In this case, Apple needs to either permit all applications (other than those that are illegal; violate a policy with a carrier - this should be different in different countries, as some carriers permit tethering, for example; or harm a user by installing a virus or spyware). By the way, I am surprised that Apple is allowing apps with ads to be sold - and some provided for free. Apple is losing its 30% share, since the developers are getting all of the ad revenue!! Maybe they will stop that practice in the future, because it will hurt their wallet. If Apple chooses to have restrictions that are not clear, then it should have an approval system for an "idea" for a project at the outset. The app would be approved or denied based upon the description. It could be denied later if the developer did not substantially follow the description. Apple also needs either to develop or allow third party developers to develop apps that provide features that are commonplace in other smarphones, such as copy/paste, an MMS app, a better SMS app that allows you to forward an SMS message or store default messages that a user sends more than once, a video recorder app, a decent voice dialing app, a much more extensive camera app, an app that allows themes to be modified - including ringtones that are not snippets of music, apps that turn Wi-Fi, bluetooth, 3G, location services on and off from the homescreen or from the top task bar on the phone - it is ridiculous that we have to dig down 3 or 4 subscreens to turn these features on or off, and an app that allows certain calls to be blocked or permitted. I know that some people feel that copy/paste or MMS is useless, but many people want these features. So why not have them and allow those who find them useless opt to turn them off! I'm sure that some people don't have stocks and find that app to be useless, but those people can choose to put it on the last homescreen. It is possible to develop these apps, as many of them exist for jailbroken phones. If the issue is that some of these apps could make the phone more sluggish if they are not optimized, then Apple can either develop these apps themselves or work closely with the developers who are developing them to ensure that they are optimized. That will solve the issue. However, Apple really needs to allow these to exist for the iPhone so that it can compete with other smartphones more effectively! Hopefully it will choose to do this sooner rather than later.
also, something like this hasn't been pulled off before, it is very successful for only being 2 months old it has revolutionzed the mobile industry and things can only get better I applaud Apple for Standing up and shaking things up, cause quite frankly, pre-07, the mobile industry was a horrid mess and no standards
I agree, the App Store is a huge success. And I'm not certain how drastically these problems will affect things if they go unaddressed. It should be noted that apparently there will be no filtering of any sort on app in the Android Marketplace. Theoretically, someone could write a game featuring hardcore pornography and it would sit alongside Quicken and the like. We'll see how that turns out. blakespot
here's an IGN article talking about issues in the app store. hopefully we'll see an improvement soon. at this rate it's just getting easier for good games to get swept under the rug http://wireless.ign.com/articles/914/914000p1.html
A little off topic, but I completely agree with you on this! It really drives me crazy that if I want to use my bluetooth it takes 4 clicks for me to get there. Since bluetooth drains my battery, I only turn it on when I am planning on calling someone in the car. But if someone calls and it is not on, I have to tell them to hold on and go through and set it up. A 1 touch button would be so much better!!
