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Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

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Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#191

Post by mike_h »

annon wrote: post #146
thibaut_barrere wrote: post #5

Now I seriously hope it means we'll be able to use MacRuby on iPhone/iPad in the next few weeks/months.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'd love to do some small things on iPhone, but I don't really want to commit the time to become pro at Objective-C. It's not a bad language, just not my thing.

If you've used C or Java before, you can become "pro enough" in ObjC in a matter of hours, maybe even 1 hour. The real work of designing an iOS app is getting the interface right, and any complex logic you might have. Nothing esoteric about day-to-day expressing yourself in ObjC -- plus Cocoa provides so many nice features that the verbosity you may gain coming from Ruby is offset by the amount of coding Apple took care of for you.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#193

Post by SoftwareMaven »

chc wrote: post #178
weaksauce wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think trial software has the connotation of being time limited. This whole section of the rules is just saying that they should be able to use the software as much as they want without having a "dead" app in the phone after the software expires. Lite just means less features/levels so that is permissible.

Time-limited or nagware. Upsells are OK, but IIRC Apple doesn't like nags.

They also don't like software that looks like some feature should work, but just pops up a "buy me" dialog. Lites are OK as long as they are internally consistant.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#194

Post by tptacek »

gte910h wrote: post #189
tptacek wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's also not how antitrust works. Read: http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/reports/236681.pdf Read the intro to section 2, then skip to section 2 and read the first couple pages. Long story short: the acid test for "monopoly power" is, "if Apple jacked the prices up on iPhones, would its customers be unable to acquire reasonable substitutes." Since Apple has something less than 30% of the smart-phone market (note:…

There is another store for which normal people can buy software for iOS devices? "would its customers be unable to acquire reasonable substitutes." If you look at the class "iOS software" which is only legitimately sold by one vendor, the very definition of a monopoly. If Apple raised the price of all iPhone apps to 200k tomorrow, there would be no reasonable substitute for software for the device. They do not have a…

You are hopping between two arguments to avoid having to deal with the weaknesses of either of them.

On the one hand, you point out that Apple has a 100% monopoly on iOS applications. Of course, Twitter also has a 100% monopoly on Twitter apps. Surely nobody thinks Twitter has a monopoly.

On the other hand, you point to profit share in the wider market of smartphone apps. But of course the problem there is that Apple has less than 30% of the market for smart phones, and so clearly can't monopolize the market for smartphone apps.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#196

Post by tptacek »

notahacker wrote: post #190
tptacek wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under that theory of law, every platform company in the world is subject to antitrust suits as the "monopoly provider of access to that platform". Twitter could be sued. 37signals could be sued. Fortunately, this simply isn't how antitrust law works.

Microsoft's monopoly was only on Windows, which just happened to be the only viable option for most PC OEMs and browser developers. If owning 99.4% of the mobile app sales market (Gartner figure for 2009) and imposing restrictions which hinder the development of cross-platform apps doesn't deserve antitrust scrutiny, I'm really not sure what does.

No, it was the only option for most PC OEMs, because Microsoft adopted anticompetitive licensing practices that explicitly punished OEMs financially for distributing anything but Windows with prominently-placed IE.

Apple cannot control 99.4% of the mobile app market, regardless of what their current revenue share is, because they still control less than 30% of the market for app platforms. If Apple attempted to abuse their position in the market to the detriment of customers, customers would switch to other phones, which is easy because there are multiple vendors with approximately the same or greater market penetration.

There is just no way to get around the fact that Apple does not control the mobile app market (yet). Coming up with the market model that maximizes revenue and one random Gartner stat does not make them a monopoly. Read the document I posted earlier; it's written for laypeople.

Think of it this way: imagine Apple invented 3D animated wallpaper technology, and allowed people to create and sell wallpapers in a special wallpaper store. A year later, Samsung releases a phone that also has a 3D animated wallpaper store. By your logic, Apple would have nearly 100% share of the 3D animated wallpaper market, and would be subject to antitrust regulation.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#198

Post by zekel »

ra88it wrote: post #33
umjames wrote: post #9

Wait, so does this mean Apple doesn't have a problem with a 3rd-party framework becoming the preferred API for iOS development? How does not allowing apps that download code prevent this? Also, does this mean you can't download JavaScript from an external web page in your app?

Apparently Javascript is given an explicit exception.

Would you mind linking me to where it says that? I can't find it.

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#199

Post by mattmanser »

tptacek wrote: post #156
mattmanser wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but we're starting to live in a slightly weird world where once you buy a particular product which is a gateway to other products and services, the manufacturer is dictating in a very megalomaniac way on how you spend your money. And commanding huge sums from utterly controlling that marketplace. Like the XBox and iPhone. They may have a non-commanding share of mobiles, but they have a total monopoly on iPhone…

Under that theory of law, every platform company in the world is subject to antitrust suits as the "monopoly provider of access to that platform". Twitter could be sued. 37signals could be sued. Fortunately, this simply isn't how antitrust law works.

What theory of law? Notice the words 'weird' and 'starting to live', I am saying that this is new territory and as such the law hasn't even been tested yet. It may even result in new legislation.

There is a huge gap between the monopolistic marketplaces that Apple and MS have setup and service providers like Twitter or 37signals who give api keys to anyone who asks.

And why fortunately? Do you like having your freedoms curtailed? Do you like being vastly overcharged for things you know would be a lot less if competition was allowed?

Re: Apple Relaxes iOS Restrictions On Development Tools, Publishes Review Guidelines

#200

Post by zekel »

mike_h wrote: post #191
annon wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what I was thinking. I'd love to do some small things on iPhone, but I don't really want to commit the time to become pro at Objective-C. It's not a bad language, just not my thing.

If you've used C or Java before, you can become "pro enough" in ObjC in a matter of hours, maybe even 1 hour. The real work of designing an iOS app is getting the interface right, and any complex logic you might have. Nothing esoteric about day-to-day expressing yourself in ObjC -- plus Cocoa provides so many nice features that the verbosity you may gain coming from Ruby is offset by the amount of coding Apple took c…

Yeah, it's really Cocoa you have to learn, not ObjC.
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