The Future of iPhone App Distribution
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:28 am
I’m not sure if there’s an iPhone owner or developer on the planet who believes that the current situation with Apple’s App Store is absolutely flawless as is–even Apple’s Phil Schiller admits that the company makes mistakes. And everybody has an opinion on how to fix it–just today Facebook’s Joe Hewitt has said that there should be no approval process, and Engadget’s Nilar Patel has argued for a “sideloading” option.
So here’s today’s T-Poll:
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August 25th, 2009 at 11:52 am
As long as Apple maintains the store, there will always be an approval process with onerous restrictions (i.e. no change to the phones built-in functionality). Apple wouldn’t want it any other way.
Side-loading is the only way unapproved apps would ever get on there, but Apple will never allow it. Palm has tacitly approved home-brew on the Pre, but Apple keeps on fighting the jail-breakers, because Apple can’t handle anyone questioning their authority.
This is exactly why, eventually, open systems like WebOS and Android will win in the end. It won’t be overnight, but eventually people will want out of the Apple lock-in.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
It’s really in the iPhone customers’ and developers’ best interest for Apple to open up iPhone app distribution. Both groups are being handicapped by Apple’s control. iPhone customers are at the mercy of Apple in deciding what software they can run on a device that they have purchased and own. Developers are at the mercy of Apple to approve the apps that they spend countless hours and dollars developing AFTER the work is done.
I wrote a post a few weeks ago (http://www.bytesizeupdates.com/should-the-federal-trade-commission-take-a-second-look-at-apple) suggesting that Apple is maintaining a software monopoly over the iPhone. I doubt there are too many manufacturers that could get away with maintaining this level of control over a consumer owned device.