“Continued issues with the App Store approval process are prompting developers to shun the platform entirely. Though there are tens of thousands of other developers pumping out over 100000 iPhone apps, will continued migration away from iPhone development result in less quality software for the platform? Worse yet, will users even care?”
Will we see less quality software on the platform? That depends entirely on the sort of developers who end up leaving. As is, finding quality software is quite hard (that is, by browsing around, as opposed to finding something you might’ve heard mentioned somewhere else) given the sheer number of apps for the App Store, and the high percentage of shovelware.
As for users noticing, we’ll see; I think that the biggest impact may well be on Android, which could see an influx of new devs to coincide with the slew of new phones running the OS coming out in coming months. I predict a minor impact in the short run, possibly a big one in the long run.
Edited 2009-11-16 20:34 UTC
Will we see less quality software on the platform? I would say that it depends entirely on the sort of developers coming in.
The big problem now is that many of these are developers on their second pass through the system. These are developers making money on Mac-only software, writing for iphone and some of the first developers to jump in with polished apps. What’s going to happen is the worst possible thing… version 2 of the apps are never going to see production, Apple is making bug fix and security checking so painful nobody wants to do it.
The going trend seems to be that Apple is now getting “real” companies to write iPhone apps (tom tom, EA, etc) and I don’t think they feel the need for the “small shop” developers that are the staple of Mac OSX software. I also think that these smaller developers know where CUSTOMERS want the iPhone to go way better than Apple and have experience with Apple’s tools to bend and twist and play with their toys in an unapproved manner. Because of that I think apple is shutting these guys down for getting “too far ahead” of what Apple and AT&T think iPhones should be doing, and just using under-staffing/silence rather than discussing the issues openly.
The REAL trouble for iPhone is that big companies like EA will drop it like a stone if they don’t get unrealistic 25% year-over-year growth because things aren’t profitable “enough”. Same with all these other companies that have been dealing with Microsoft for years, but stopped dealing with Apple… Apple will fail again if they don’t open their process up so that some of the small, consistent MacOS and iPhone devs get to be millionaires too. I get the feeling Apple is cherry-picking the best markets to woo bigger companies as new partners, and leaving the guys that stuck with them behind… If there’s no seat at the table the small, productive devs will stop coming and Mac/iPhone will die again.
What I see is that EA couldn’t care less whether they do a high quality job or not on their software on any platform. On iPhone, all developers are expected to sell consumer applications much cheaper than for any computer platform or game console.
The small developers are likely doing better because they’re more willing to manipulate their pricing (temporarily) to spark interest. On the other hand, Apple isn’t much help unless you’re a big name development house.
The real question is: does the rate/number of new developers exceed the rate/number of developers leaving the platform? In other words, what’s the churn rate?
If Apple continues to take such an arrogant attitude towards iPhone developers, they’ll eventually create a situation where existing developers (and users) leave faster than they’re replaced by new developers.
There may be a sucker born every minute, but that doesn’t make them an infinite resource. Don’t believe me? Then I have three letters for you: AOL.
I still have a year-and-a-half on my iPhone contract. I better not get stuck with a ton of crappy apps while phones like the Droid get all the good stuff now.
It shall be interesting to see what happens. This June is when 3G contracts are up for anyone who didn’t break their contract to go to a 3GS’s.
Edited 2009-11-16 20:51 UTC
Not sure if there is the good stuff on Android, but the junk to good programs ratio probably is better and around 80-90% of all programs are free on the market. Heck google does not even force you into the market and handles it in a very relaxed manner, lots of emulation stuff is there, programs which need rooted phones are there. Pretty much the only thing google pulls is malware and root hacks. (which you can obtain otherwise since you are not bound to the app store as source of programs)
I have an Android phone, while the iPhone overall is faster (probably because Dalvik is not the fastest VM around, heck it is one of the slowest ones) I am more than happy with it it is overall faster than the previous WinCE phone I had which had similar hardware and Android is quite nice.
I must say that, while the app store is awesome from the user side, the inconsistent approval processes are bound to result in developers giving up. Why, if I’m developing an app, would I put all my time and effort into it only to have some bitpusher at Apple reject it even though it meets their requirements? It just doesn’t make sense, and quite frankly I am surprised that more developers haven’t left and that there is, at least, a good number of quality apps for the platform. It’s true that there’s a lot of crap in the app store as well (how many flashlight apps do we need?) but right now there is also some very nice and useful apps. I certainly care if there no longer continues to be good apps, especially since given my situation there’s no platform I can switch to aside from windows mobile or symbian neither of which have very many decent apps at all.
Imho, if Apple insists on being the gatekeeper, they need to institute some sort of pre-approval process. For example, I write out exactly what I want my app to do and why. Apple either approves or disapproves and, if disapproves, explains why. If they approve, then and only then do you develop the app and as long as it does exactly what your original writeup says they’d be bound by contract to enter it into the app store. I think such a system would work much better and make developers much happier than the current one does, at least then Apple can continue to control the store and yet developers don’t have their time wasted by writing an app that most users will never get to use.
Why do they need to `control the store’ to begin with?
Put a “report spam/fake/offensive” link and leave it to users to do the cleanup.
Do you really think that the vast majority of users are savvy enough to figure out when an app is malware? And by the time someone figures it out, many people will have installed it and be unable to remove it, leading to increased tech support costs for Apple and increased frustration for everyone.
I’m not saying, however, that Apple’s current process is right. Perhaps better would be some democratic process where community members vet apps. An app that hasn’t been vetted can appear in the store, but it’ll be red-marked all over the place with warnings that it hasn’t been checked. The trouble is, this just isn’t the Apple way.
At the very least, they should keep some internal dev rating list that helps them to prioritize respected veteran devs versus random Joe noname. Having a few unexperienced hackers pissed off isn’t a big deal, because that will only improve the quality of what gets into the store. Having a team of high-end respected developers pissed off is a bad thing, because that will only worsten the quality of what gets into the store.
Is there a user rating system in the iphone app store?
Yes there is.
Are you asking if it’s possible for users to rate apps? Yes, there is such a system. But I’m not talking about users rating an app that is otherwise safe. I’m talking about users even being ABLE to rate something after they installed some malware, and it bricked their phone. Well, maybe they can do it from their PC. They can say, “This app just cost me $500, because it bricked my phone, I was still in contract, and Apple wouldn’t fix it,” or at the very least, “I lost all my contacts and emails because this app bricked my phone, and Apple had to wipe it. Next time, I’ll remember to sync.”
It’s all about the “experience”…….
It’s partly about the experience, partly about customer protection, partly about control, partly about a lot of things really. As mentioned previously, the iPhone is not just sold in one or two countries and rogue apps in some countries could create a huge financial burden on the account holder. Unfortunately Apple don’t have the luxury of being flippant about that fact…
And some third party apps could cause a loss of Apple, Inc. revenue or, more importantly, control by Apple, Inc. of what iPhone users do, and what software they choose to use. And unfortunately Apple doesn’t have the luxury of being flippant about that fact.
Edited 2009-11-17 23:43 UTC
Which is why, in my post, in the preceding part you chose to not quote, I also said:
😉
I feel for the developers, I’m just a user, and I rather enjoy the fact that every app, at least so far, didn’t crash, or cause the iphone grind to a holt, or was a total crap otherwise. Check the apps in android market and other venyes for apps for the android, I bet a good number of them are crashy crappy apps. I’m not even mentioning the pathetic mess that are symbian and Windows Mobile.
If Apple wants to keep holding the user experinece in high standard, then apparantly there’s a price for that, though I’m sure they can be more clear about the standards and not be so opaque.
Well it is not as bad, from all the apps I have encountered on the market you can count the apps which crash on one hand, and those are mostly ones coded with C and bound against a special version of android and never updated.
You usually can read it in the comments if it is so. From 100 or so I have downloaded 3-4 were crashy and most of them were coded against Android 1.0 on the G1 and never updated.
Dalvik saves a lot of pain in this area WinCE users had to endure, while Dalvik is not the best VM there and definitely not the fastest it is a good starting point for many applications to prevent crash desaster.
So your whole point of view is baised on an assumption that other platforms do not have stable apps like the iPhone does?
Edited 2009-11-17 10:02 UTC
Check the apps in android market and other venyes for apps for the android, I bet a good number of them are crashy crappy apps. I’m not even mentioning the pathetic mess that are symbian and Windows Mobile.
You’re just guessing here, and it’s rather clear which camp you’re cheering for. I have a Symbian phone and so far all the apps I use are stable as a rock. I doubt the situation is any different for Android either.
Respected developer turns into a stream of respected developers?
Get real.
The days of easy money on the iPhone are reaching it’s peak.
Larger scale developers [truly respected developers] are working on a variety of apps for the iPhone to add a tier to their traditional core solutions.
Glad you cross posted this useless Arstechnica blog about Hewitt–Mr. Firebug.
Talk to me when someone actually writes something more than an interface to a Web App.
Actually, if you read the arstechnica article, there were three well known devs who recently decided they had enough. Apple treats its devs like crap. Thats just the way its going to be apparently.
Three out of how many? Look we all know there are issues with the approval process, some of them though are in reality unrealistic expectations from devs themselves. While I like the concept of market approval it simply cannot work. The iPhone is in too many countries and rogue apps could very easily in some of those countries wrack up a $50k bill for the user. While that user would certainly then be able to mod the app down it wouldn’t fix their $50k bill.
WRT the approval process itself, there have been a lot of good suggestions made on fixing it, but again, have you ever tried to move a bulldozer with a toothpick? I really don’t think Apple know how to fix this problem at the moment, and none of us really know if they even want to. Thom and Co will tell you it’s their culture and they’ll never change, others will stick their head in the sand and claim there is no problem while the sane people will realise that there is a problem but any fix for it will likely piss other people off anyway and will take quite some time to implement. If devs get the shits and leave in the mean time it’s not going to make Apple cry or put any more resources into fixing the perceived problem than they already are, that’s the way it is, get over it.
At the end of the day Devs will want to be where the market share is, we just have to look at Windows for that, and while Microsoft treat their devs pretty well these days it wasn’t always the case…
The problem isn’t that three left. Its that three professionals left. Out of all the people submitting apps, how many have what it takes to development a fit and polished piece of software versus a piece of junk.
People really mod people down because of tone these days. I think what Tyrione said is at least partially valid. What was he modded down for?
Tone.
white teeth
Thom
Mr Hewitt pretty much left because he got his knuckles wrapped for using private API elements. This isn’t being reported anywhere, but it is most def in his Three20 library, and therefore the Facebook App. A fe developers using his library recently got the same treatment by Apple, and I believe this will be what sparked his “leaving”.
http://groups.google.com/group/three20/browse_thread/thread/e4514ae…
http://developers.enormego.com/view/rejected_for_using_uitouch
http://tweetmeme.com/story/258750622/heads-up-apple-store-rejection…
“I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.”
Only on phones now, but what will happen when cloudcomputting hits the masses.
We’ll risk all getting infected by the limitations set by controlling compagnies.
So whats so private about the API? Why have an API you can’t use? He has been using it for some time so it obviously isn’t changing. Does it do something not able to be done by another means?
I don’t buy that Apple is trying to control the user experience. If that were the case, they would only accept the best of apps or maybe the top X%, The rest would be rejected. But thats not the case. How many flashlight apps are there on the app store? How many do you really need? Plus, how do you justify asking a company to spend money on development when they have no guarantee that their app will even make it into the store?
Private APIs are usually undocumented and not externally exposed in a header. You have to examine the object code to know that they are there.
They are written for internal use by the library vendor and often address a specific issue or use case from within. There may be an intention to eventually make them public, but the behavior and API has not been fully vetted for them to be considered fit for public consumption. They are inherently unstable because the function signature, its implementation (or the fact that it exists at all) can change from one dot release to the next. Using a private API, runs the risk of your app suddenly crashing or behaving unexpectedly. The fact that in this case, the API had not changed (yet) is irrelevant.
Other issues aside, anyone using private APIs in their app should not be surprised if it is rejected from the app store.
Plus Apple has been pretty laid back about this up till now – even though it is expressly against the Developer Agreement to use them. They just started static analysis of the submitted apps, so they are now picking up on this stuff. Why static analysis? They’ll also pick up other less nice stuff, such as “naughty” things people are trying to mask or potential security risks.
Just a few comments about this. First, developers may be annoyed at Apple because of their lame application vetting process, but most developers aren’t going anywhere, since the App Store is generating real $$$, and it offers great visibility. Second, people should be aware that Apple’s behavior is pretty similar to what you see on the Mac OS X desktop; that is, they encourage application development, then as soon as an application category starts to achieve critical mass, they either acquire & consolidate successful application companies or they create their own products which effectively compete against other 3rd party developers in the ecosystem. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn’t have restrictions on what apps that it can bundle with its operating system, so it can choke the life out of competitors, as it sees fit. As long as you understand this dynamic and don’t have unrealistic expectations of Apple, you won’t be disillusioned.