The podcast list is moderated, but fairly open. However the app store is a commercial entity and different quality measures should be expected. Much like how you can assume base quality measures for iTunes paid content (certain bit rate, perfectly legal, it comes with album art, it will really work on your iPod, etc etc).
Since they are letting so much crap through it's pretty likely they aren't actually looking at all the apps. I gotta imagine Steve Jobs isn't going to smile when he sees 10% of the apps in his store are public domain books. One of the benefits of a walled garden is a base line of quality.
I still haven't heard the customer service side of the app store. What kind of data do you get about your customers? How do you make paid updates? How do you do demo copies? Evaluation copies? Who decides when a customer gets a refund? Etc etc. Since it's Apple's merch account they have the last say, but to date they haven't said much to developers.
Since they are letting so much crap through it's pretty likely they aren't actually looking at all the apps. I gotta imagine Steve Jobs isn't going to smile when he sees 10% of the apps in his store are public domain books. One of the benefits of a walled garden is a base line of quality.
I still haven't heard the customer service side of the app store. What kind of data do you get about your customers? How do you make paid updates? How do you do demo copies? Evaluation copies? Who decides when a customer gets a refund? Etc etc. Since it's Apple's merch account they have the last say, but to date they haven't said much to developers.