The front page of today's business section on the New York Times carries a massive article about how Apple has changed the way we look at mobile phones today.
While there is no denial on the iPhone's role in changing the entire mobile ecosystem, it is interesting that New York Times' sympathetic look at the company's iPhone app policies come at a time when the company is desperately looking to improve their image among the app developers.
In her article, Jenna Wortham talks to a multitude of people - iPhone app developers, market analysts and Apple executives to get a better picture of how the App Store has been a game-changer. Phil Schiller, the head of Worldwide Marketing at Apple sees the mobile applications as the future of software development, while Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley sees Apple to be causing the same paradigm shift in the mobile phone market what Microsoft effected in the personal desktop space. In her words,
"The iPhone is something different. It’s changing our behavior. The game that Apple is playing is to become the Microsoft of the smartphone market"
While Jenna's article predominantly echoes Cupertino's point of view, the article does highlight the perspective from those who have opposed Apple's policies. Highlighting the plight of those iPhone app developers who have grown tired of Apple's app policies, Mario Ciabarra who owns 'Rock Your Phone', the popular online store for jailbroken iPhone apps says:
"Developers are just tired of the review process and navigating opaque hurdles. They’ve been defecting to the jailbroken community or other platforms, such as Android. That demand has created the marketplace for our products and attracted developers"
The iPhone App store definitely has revolutionized the market. Google, Palm, RIM and Microsoft all own their own App Store clones today trying to emulate the kind of success that Apple has had with its App Store. There have been several app developers who have reaped riches with the advent of the app ecosystem.
While Jenna's article has surely helped Apple project the company in a better light, some important questions remain - With constant criticism about the opaqueness of the app approval process, what is Apple doing to make the app developers' life easier? It is important that this segment of the app ecosystem remains happy because it is them that have made the ecosystem what it is today.
What do you think?
[via The New York Times]
I do believe Apple have changed the way we look at mobile phones, but they really need to lower their prices!
There are so many other similar phones out there which are half the price!
My sense is that the developer complaints are a fairly small problem. When you are processing 10,000 new apps per week there are bound to be difficulties and certainly those with problems will complain loudly, as they should. If 0.1% of the developers have problems that still means that ten per week have a reason to write nasty comments in a blog that can be picked up and spread around while 9,990 developers are happy. Difficult for us on the outside to gauge.
This reminds me of the debate about music DRM and how music was tied to the iPod. Lots of writers blogged about this. Actual users didn't care.
Also, the sheer size of the apps flow has sprung up very quickly. Just two years ago this didn't exist. Now there is a flood of applications. Apple has had to not just hire people but figure out the policies and ethics of running the store while implementing them smoothly. Many companies would be crushed by this challenge. Kudos to Apple for doing as well as they have done. And here's to hoping they keep making that experience better.
The iPhone seems reasonably priced. I don't see that the price is much different from that of the competition. Isn't the Pre more expensive?
As a user, I think a few developers are just whiny twits./ Here, Apple has created a free marketplace for them and all they can do is whine their fart app is not being approved fast enough – we have over 100,000 apps so clearly apps are being approved, just not theirs at the pace they like. In other words, spoiled brats. They want total freedom, they have the internet but of course, that's NOT a strctured marketplace where people can make money. THEY CAN'T HAVE IT ALL. As an iphone user, I want to know the app has pased minimum requiremets even if it's a fart app – I do not trust them, I trust Apple so if they don't like it, STEP ASIDE and let the professionals create apps and you can go back to complaining to your clerk at Starbucks your half cafe-half decafe latte doesn't have enough cinnamon.
The whining developers are a small minority. The vast number of developers are happy and making money.
Just look at the apps that are available on rock/cydia it shows that there are multiple apps that should have been approved. Some of the apps have been rolled into iPhone 3.0 software, but sometimes these third party apps are what make the phone better.
Just to roll them into the OS may not be the best as there is not as much competition… something which makes apple work harder, and can speed development especially of things that apple has not seen fit to produce in 3 years.
history in the making