With all the fuss around the App Store approval process lately, Apple decided it was time to make some PR and sent Phil Schiller, its SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, to talk with the press (BusinessWeek actually) and give us some (prepared) answers.
Overally his message is that Apple just wants to provide a complete solutions for both developers and customers, something that “just works” and takes care of the safety and the billings.
Furthermore he believes that developers are actually happy to have Apple supervise them :
Most [applications] are approved and some are sent back to the developer. In about 90% of those cases, Apple requests technical fixes—usually for bugs in the software or because something doesn’t work as expected. Developers are generally glad to have this safety net because usually Apple’s review process finds problems they actually want to fix
So apparently everything is going great and the fuss comes from a few dissatisfied haters, loud enough to cover a largely satisfied mass, a little bit like when it comes to AT&T’s network coverage…
I don’t know if this really is the situation… Anyway, would you prefer freedom or safety?
[via TechCrunch]
As a former Verizon customer I can say that at least on long island verizon and AT&T are on par performance wise. They both have decent coverage. Both charge too much, but AT&T is a lot more honest about it and doesn’t remove features without warning. I was a verizon customer for close to 10 years and I am a hell of a lot more satisfied with AT&T.
i would rather the safety than having to jailbreak to get apps i want. especially since the jailbreak is more vulnerable to attacks than anything, since the software is being hacked in order to use 3rd party apps. you never know what your installing from cydia or anything else.
I prefer some approval process. The Android Market is nothing but a big junkyard of buggy trash applications. There are a few good ones, but even apps by the bigger developers (for example the Facebook app) lack features that the iPhone counterpart has. For the most part, the Android Market has been overrun by cheap junk from people trying to make a few quick bucks. The actual market itself is a joke. I realize people don’t like iTunes but at least you can find stuff.
Most of the developers I know are absolutely thrilled to have their ancient buggy app pissing off cusomera while their new fixed version sits in limbo for weeks and then gets rejected due to a trivial bug that existed in the release, while the release has major issues.
If Apple is so sure developers and users like the approval process, they’d end this while debate by allowing users to load apps directly from developers. The app store would still exist and would still be a cash cow for those few who have done well, and since developers prefer the app store no one would use the alternate distribution method anyway. Either that it Apple is just trying to spin.