On: Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad

[DannoHung]

Sandboxing an application is a bit different than mandating that the code be originally written in a certain way, regardless of what they compile to.

[michael_dorfman → DannoHung]

But the mandate only applies if you want to sell the app in their store.

Steve's not telling you how to write your code. He's telling you how to write code if you want him to sell it for you to his customers.

[aboodman → michael_dorfman]

His customers?

I think application developers are most used to thinking of users as _their_ customers. But you're right, that is clearly not what Steve is thinking.

[allenp → aboodman]

The disconnect between the developer and customer is huge in the app store. Everything is skewed towards the customer having no relationship except with Apple. The deployment model, the communication channel, updates, everything goes through Apple. There have been a lot of blog posts (not sure of other sources) written about how to bridge this gap and connect with customers. I think in a lot of ways this is the same battle the TV networks are having with Hulu. Just like Hulu wants to be The Channel, Apple wants to be your one stop media and entertainment stop, and content producers are just anonymous and a dime a dozen.

[stcredzero → michael_dorfman]

True. That would be like Singapore telling us how to build a widget if we want to be able to ship it through their harbors and sell it on their territory.

/me wonders about Squeak on the iPad.

Found it: http://isqueak.org/HomePage Developer signed goodness!

[aerique → michael_dorfman]

But if you don't want to jailbreak your phone there aren't many other stores to choose from for the iPhone, are there?

[ryanhuff → aerique]

Why does that really matter? If I sold chocolate covered bagels, and I was the only chocolate covered bagel store in town, do I have to serve you?

Or, if you wanted to open your own chocolate covered bagel store in the only mall within 30 miles, does the mall operator have to lease you space?

As a developer, I find the situation painful, but I think Apple views the appstore as their mall, and they want to control the image of their mall by holding the store keepers to a certain standard in order to promote a certain customer experience.

[aerique → ryanhuff]

Depending on the country your store is in: yes, you would have to serve me unless you have a very good reason not to (like I'm a returning thief or troublemaker).

[hartror → ryanhuff]

Sure they can do what they like on the iPhone (within the grounds of the law) but we don't have to like it.

And how does this change have anything to do with customer experience when they already vet customer experience when the app is submitted?

[coliveira → hartror]

> but we don't have to like it.

developers for the iPhone are a dime a dozen. But there is only one Appstore for the iPhone.

[IgorPartola → hartror]

It's their sandbox, they can do what they want. Just like you can choose whether to play in it or not.