NetShare for iPhone: now you see it, now you don't

Stephen Withers
Monday, 04 August 2008 07:33

Business IT - Technology

While such carrier limitations might be a sufficient reason for requiring a warning in NetShare's description on the App Store, it does not seem to justify completely withdrawing the $A12.99/$US9.99 application from sale.

Unlocked iPhones are legitimately available in some countries (notably Australia and France), and various carriers around the world (including AT&T and Telstra) do offer mobile plans that do allow tethering. So it would be strange if Apple had withdrawn NetShare in deference to certain carriers, especially when it could restrict its availability to those countries where it can be used in line with at least one mobile carrier's terms and conditions.

Apple's seeming reluctance to communicate with its App Store partners must be a concern for developers. While there are various reasons why a prodcut might be reasonably withdrawn after being accepted for the App Store, surely reasonable business practices would require the affected developer to be immediately notified of the exact reason so it has a chance to promptly rectify the situation.

Over the weekend, iTWire asked Apple Australia to comment on the matter, but no reply has been received as of this writing.

NetShare appears to be a commercial implementation of a previously reported method of sharing an iPhone's connection.

Nullriver has also developed Tuner, a $A7.99/$US5.99 Internet radio application for the iPhone and iPod touch. (If you're not using it over Wi-Fi, watch out for the amount of data it will consume unless you're on an unlimited data plan.)