Unauthorised iPhone apps crunch Apple - tough!

Stan Beer
Saturday, 07 March 2009 11:58

Opinion and Analysis

News that alternatives to the iPhone App Store are springing up all over will come as welcome relief to thousands of developers who have had their collective efforts to turn the iPhone into an open platform stymied by a fanatical control freak of a company. The question is will Apple do the right thing by its users and shareholders and open up the iPhone platform?

With iPhones currently selling at a rate of 20 million a year - give or take a few million - at an average unsubsidised price of US$500, pardon me if I don't shed tears about threats to the millions of dollars Apple skims from the earnings of its "authorised" third party iPhone developers.

Not that there's anything wrong with the App Store - it's great. If you happen to be a developer that wants to conform to Apple's standards and are prepared to go through the process of having your application accepted or rejected for the App Store, then that's fine.

However, if you're a developer who has spent time developing an application for the iPhone which you believe there's a market for, regardless of what Apple says, in a free economy why shouldn't you be allowed to sell your application through other channels?

In fact, if other channels can give iPhone developers a better deal than Apple then why shouldn't they be allowed to compete vigorously for the distribution rights of those applications?

Apple claims that it wants to maintain control over the applications that it allows on the iPhone because it wants to maintain the quality of the user experience. Baloney!

Most iPhone owners are big boys and girls. If they want to install something on their iPhone - the device they paid good money for - and it crashes the device or doesn't work too well that's their problem. They don't need Apple looking their shoulder like a protective nanny.

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