

Steven Frank Gets Reply From Phil Schiller on iPhone Boycott - ams1
http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/160726521/on-saturday-night-we-drove-up-to-seattle-to

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antonovka
After years of dealing with Apple, I've learned that the only thing that gets
their attention is negative press.

It's pretty clear that they're listening.

This is why I find comments disparaging those who complain about the App Store
to be remarkably silly and short-sighted. Complaining -- publicly -- is
exactly how you get a corporation like Apple to change. Unless you disagree
with their aims, why disparage those that voice their negative opinions in an
effort to enact change?

~~~
paulgb
I've only been watching the app store from a distance, so maybe I'm missing
something from my perspective. But it seems Apple has been getting negative
press from the beginning of the app store and made little effort to change, at
the expense of both developers and iPhone users (and likely Apple itself).
It's good to see them changing now, but I have to wonder what rock they've
been under for the last year or more.

~~~
derefr
Negative tech press and negative _popular_ press are different things. When
the tech press disparages you, that will likely have no correlation at all to
how either the public _or_ the developers see you. When the popular press say
something bad about you, the public's opinion will start to shift, and then
the developers will feel justified in changing their minds to a greater
extent. To put it another way: the tech press has said bad things about every
version of Windows. The popular press only said bad things about Vista.

~~~
paulgb
_When the tech press disparages you, that will likely have no correlation at
all to how either the public or the developers see you._

I'm not an app developer, but I'd be quite surprised if the tech press Apple
has been getting has not discouraged developers or potential developers to
some extent.

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blasdel
_He went on to say that the rumors of widespread e-book app rejection I’d
heard were false — that specifically one e-book app had been rejected because
it facilitated iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of (potentially copyrighted) books.
But that otherwise, there was no sweeping ban on e-book readers._

That's only true under Apple's tortured reasoning that they're not 'banning'
apps by only allowing them rated XXX, even in the period before the rating
system was live.

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tjstankus
It's great that Apple are listening, but this quote from the article stands
out to me:

"Technically, nothing specific has actually visibly changed in the last few
days. I said I wouldn’t go back until I could see actual demonstrable progress
being made."

Of the legitimate concerns Steven Frank raised, did Phil Schiller commit to
anything actionable or measurable?

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oldgregg
NEWS FLASH: Corporation gives non-answer, changes jack shit, and expects
sympathy and understanding. Typical.

~~~
jmtulloss
Except for drip with sarcasm, this response does nothing but be less than
helpful. Being against corporations because it's cool to be against
corporations isn't productive. Most of us would jump through flaming hoops to
be a corporation influential enough that people would care about what we did.

The question is whether this is lawyer-like non-commitment or an actual step
towards improving relations. It's too soon to tell, but there's no way wrote
derision is in order. We should encourage this.

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mildweed
Apple is known for their secrecy and grand announcements. The debacle they
have gotten themselves into in this case requires transparency to get out of
gracefully. I hope that Phil makes some sort of (grand) summary announcement
about their upcoming transparency. And that it actually materializes.

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grinich
Note to all: Phil Schiller is actually a human being who lives on earth and
reads the news. He also sends an email from time to time.

~~~
pyre
I'm sure he does. But most of the time corporate execs have this 'iron
curtain' on communications with the public or media. So when a corporate exec
from a large company sends something out it can feel like a big deal...

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jamesk2
Apple is trying to do innovative things like the App Store. In trying
something new, they made mistakes. And if they want to keep innovating, they
have to keep making new mistakes. I hear all the time that we as entrepreneurs
need to fail fast and fail often to innovate.

I think this is just the price of innovation. You're not going to hit ever
ball out of the park and some foul balls will wind up hitting someone in the
stands.

Keep making good reasoned arguments about the flaws but boycotting seems
unreasonable.

~~~
jrockway
What is innovative about the App Store?

~~~
jamesk2
An innovation is a new way of doing something. A cell phone maker actually
owning the store where applications are sold online was new and successful or
we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Really, how many applications would the iphone have if AT&T or Verizon
controlled what was allowed to be downloaded there?

~~~
jrockway
Dunno, but for-pay apps not endorsed by the carriers have been around forever.
Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Palm have had third-party apps
forever.

~~~
jmtulloss
And nobody used them.

The app store has changed mobile application delivery forever. If you want
proof, look at the recent moves by all 4 of the examples given.

~~~
jrockway
I doubt the App Store matters. People loved the iPhone before there were apps,
remember?

Palm OS, Windows Mobile, etc., etc., died because they fucking sucked, not
because there was no single app store.

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GeneralMaximus
There are two things stopping the iPhone from having an impact comparable to
the original Macintosh: (1) The closed nature of the App Store and (2) being
tied to a single carrier.

Remove those two restrictions, and the iPhone becomes a new geek toy, which
will translate into apps which are _much_ better than what we have on the
AppStore right now. The barrier to entry into the AppStore is simply too high,
which is keeping most developers from taking on more ambitious projects.

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pieter
This personal approach to the problem by Apple is the best thing they can do
at this point. Now they need to follow up not only with words, but with
actions -- make the App Store a fun place to develop for again.

