With the recent headlines of the Facebook iPhone application developer giving up on the app store, as well as beloved Mac developer Rogue Amoeba, we’ve heard little from Apple regarding their issues–until now. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide marketing, recently spoke to Business Week in defense of their app store approval process.
He likens Apple’s role in the app store to a retail chain deciding what to put on store shelves:
Whatever your favorite retailer is, of course they care about the quality of products they offer. We review the applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them.
It’s an apt analogy, except that it doesn’t apply to any other segment of computing outside of the mobile space. With Android offering a far more open alternative platform, Apple will have to sit up and take notice of more relaxed rules eventually.
Schiller goes on to chat about how they can possible accomplish that in the piece. He mentions that they reject about 10% of apps just because they’re “inappropriate” (which is not surprising), and also talks about why they have to be so strict with trademark infringement (though he admits sometimes they go too far).
I’m glad Apple is finally responding to the many complaints against the app store, but I wish they were actually listening to complaints instead of being so defensive. It’ll be interesting to see just how much more open the app store becomes over the next year.
[Source: Business Week]
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:27 pm
It would have been more interesting to hear comments on why some review takes months, like Ping! for example. Their update have been in the review process like forever. Sucks big time