I saw this disturbing ass article and had to share. All I can say is wow.... Developers have to refund 100% of the app to customers, while Apple retains the 30% the collected innitially? That is f*cked up man. I never liked Apple, but I got an iPod touch anyways (first and only Apple product really). But this makes me hate them. Why are they treating the developers, the people who ultimately made the iDevices the success they are, like complete sh*t? Discuss.
I just think they created such a freakin' scam and yet, they seem to think it's ok. Everyone will shut up and take it, and everyone will keep buying their products and put up with them.
I'm not going to judge based on the sparse evidence at hand in a definitive manner. However I will state my opinion that if the allegations are true, then this is simply setting Apple up for litigation down the road. If true, it again points to the idea that Apple is in over their heads with the approval process and should either raise the level of entry to cut down the number of apps submitted, implement unified terms that they themselves (by that I mean all staff involved in the approval process) must follow to the letter with no deviation, and/or divide the current staff in such a way that each group would be focused on a specific type of app if they are not already doing so. I truly don't think, statements from others to the contrary be damned, that Apple really understood or was prepared for the inundation of 3rd party applications for the iPhone/touch platform. In particular (and most important to the focus of this site as a whole) the inundation of game software was something that we all have seen that they were woefully unprepared to deal with. Those making statements otherwise, that this was in Apple's plans all along, point to the GPU, but I state, y'know what...Mac computers have GPUs too...they ain't used for games, they're used for other software, much of it developed by Apple. So it may be that they wanted to have a closed system for Apple software, realized that the jailbreak community, and the indie dev community, was growing and would continue to grow, and that they needed to open up the platform to development for the better of the product and the company. But they seem to have been pretty underprepared to deal with the flood of product. My opinion? The low barrier of entry is a double edged sword. And I'm not referring to the usual comparison when using that term in regards to this market (which would be crap apps vs. innovative indie apps). Here's what the double edged sword refers to: It meant more developments from outside parties, which was good as it spurred interest in Apple hardware...but the developments were so numerous that Apple just was not prepared. And it's that unpreparedness that leads to these sorts of issues.
I see your point, and I hope to god that's the case. It was wrong of me to judge so quickly based on one article alone, but it's not like this issue hasn't been going on for a while now (App Approval Process). I just think that if Apple would just hire some more people in the process, gave them all specific guidelines (and are able to site detailed reasons why the app was rejected) they would be so much better off. I just have a bit of hostility towards their Business Ethics. They need to communicate with their developers more. But I doubt they will be hiring more people. They arn't even paying all of Apples factories in China minimum wage >.> Sorry, I don't quite get what you mean
