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Apple's Mistake

paulgraham.com

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Re: Apple's Mistake

#21

Post by sfwc »

zyb09 wrote: post #7

You know on BlackBerry AppWorld each submission of an update costs you $20 AND goes through a lengthy approval process. (you need to purchase 10 submissions for $200 at a time). Oh there's a bug in my app? I could fix it in 5 minutes, but too bad..

There's a fundamental difference between BlackBerry and iPhone here, though: You don't have to use BlackBerry AppWorld if you don't want to, you can make your application available directly from your own website. Furthermore, AppWorld only takes a 20% cut: I think getting another 10% of the gross revenue (over what the App Store charges) should be worth a flat $20 administration fee to you.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#22

Post by prakash »

I wish Amazon gets into the handheld device business.

They clearly understand consumers, software, infrastructure & user-experience. They missed the boat with the ipod, here's a fantastic opportunity to do something about it.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#23

Post by rtrunck »

Most of Apple's policies handling the app store make me somewhat believe they wanted their original plan to succeed, namely, making developers write web applications and not opening up the iPhone to native development.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#25

Post by allenp »

jgrahamc wrote: post #6
charlesju wrote: post #2

1. While I agree with most developers that Apple has room for improvement, I think we should take a step back and realize how much of an improvement the iPhone has made mobile developers from a couple of years ago when the carriers were in charge of mobile applications. 2. I think the solution to the iPhone fiasco should be for Apple to hire more reviewers and allow developers to pay more money so that they can buy a…

I strongly disagree with your conclusion. Both smack of 'religious' thinking. Your point 1 is essentially 'be thankful to the merciful god who has ended the drought'. Your point 2 doesn't solve the problem, it just throws more priests at it. The solution is to open the platform to all developers. Imagine if Microsoft had vetted every DOS and Windows app, or if we had to submit Linux apps to Linus for review.

I keep seeing this notion of opening the platform brought up here. I'm having a hard time visualizing how this works out.

Does Apple continue the overhead/cost of the app store? Do they have a giant disclaimer that they do not support or condone the applications, take no responsibility for any damages, etc? Do they still act as the payment gateway? How does this impact Apple's brand and the consumer trust of the product?

Why is it that mobile phones with open app development have not taken off even with years and years of head start?

What is Apple's incentive to do this? Can they make money on a phone that allows this sort of development?

I really think there is a lot more to it than just "open it up the world deserves to be free" and we're not talking about it. Why is that?

Re: Apple's Mistake

#26

Post by chollida1 »

pohl wrote: post #18
jgrahamc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree with your conclusion. Both smack of 'religious' thinking. Your point 1 is essentially 'be thankful to the merciful god who has ended the drought'. Your point 2 doesn't solve the problem, it just throws more priests at it. The solution is to open the platform to all developers. Imagine if Microsoft had vetted every DOS and Windows app, or if we had to submit Linux apps to Linus for review.

Imagine if Microsoft had vetted every DOS and Windows app Or, hold constant that Microsoft didn't vet DOS/Windows apps and imagine that every DOS/Windows machine had access to a cellular network owned by a some other company. I agree that the review process is completely broken, but I don't think the solution is as easy as having no controls whatsoever.

> , hold constant that Microsoft didn't vet DOS/Windows apps and imagine that every DOS/Windows machine had access to a cellular network owned by a some other company.

Well most windows machines do have access to a network controlled by someone else. And with the proliferation of cellular usb accessories more and more windows machines do have access to a cellular network owned by some other company.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#27

Post by credo »

I agree with the primary point that Apple is making a mistake in not treating developers well.

However, I think that the essay misses a couple of points.

1. The essay rejects the notion of an "intermediary" or a "software publisher". However, it fails to appreciate the fact Apple has opened up the mobile app market to developers and eliminated far worse intermediaries (the walled gardens of carriers). This is a huge order-of-magnitude improvement.

2. A lot of developers do release badly-buggy apps out there and then end up "blaming" the Apple review process for their customers dissatusfaction. While I agree with the launch-fast-and-iterate approach, I don't think developers/companies should use that as a license to release poor-quality crashing apps. Cutting/postponing features to launch the app quickly can be a good thing, not testing the app and releasing an app with crashing bugs is not a good thing. ---

I don't expect Apple to throw out the review process, but I do hope that they improve the review process. A simple/easy improvement would be to show the latest queue ranking of apps that are waiting for review. That will go a long way towards reducing the "ongoing karma leak" that pg mentions.

Replying promptly to developer emails about app-store rejection will also help. Setting a limit of n apps for a $99 license may also help Apple cope with the incoming deluge of apps

Re: Apple's Mistake

#28

Post by kylec »

prakash wrote: post #22

I wish Amazon gets into the handheld device business. They clearly understand consumers, software, infrastructure & user-experience. They missed the boat with the ipod, here's a fantastic opportunity to do something about it.

Since the "1984 incident" I trust Amazon even less than I trust Apple. At least Apple doesn't yank music/apps/whatever off their customers' devices.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#29

Post by tptacek »

Though I can't marshall any evidence to support this claim, it was specifically not my impression that Apple was a company pro developers loved working with before the iPhone.

Re: Apple's Mistake

#30

Post by lt »

This is a very developer-centric view, though. For users, the app store is great - tons of applications, and they're easy to find, buy, and to install. The approval process, for the user, makes a better overall experience, increasing the overall quality of available apps. For each bugfix waiting for approval there I'm certain there's lots of buggy apps being rejected, and for each anedocte of rejection due to using the wrong icon or such nonsense, there's lots of appropriate rejections due to unstable apps.

Obviously without good and satisfied developers those benefits are moot. I'm certain the approval process needs to be [improved/changed/redesigned/removed], and maybe some kind of sanctioned jailbreak should exist where more advanced users can manually install third party apps, but I do believe the App Store itself is a good thing when you you look at it from a user perpective.

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