July 29, 2009, 11:45 PM — There's been a spate of negative news about Apple's App Store in the past few days, much of it revolving around the fact that Apple has refused to sell apps that would enable the Google Voice VoIP service on the iPhone. The excuse used is that the apps duplicate existing iPhone functionality, which of course is why people want to use them in the first place. Jon Gruber claims that a reliable source told him that AT&T killed it; AT&T denies it (though if you want you can see wiggle room in the phraseology they use in doing so). Google Voice is already available on other AT&T smartphones, so you'd think that would exonerate the much-hated wireless provider, though of course AT&T has a history of treating the iPhone differently from other smartphones where high-bandwidth apps are concerned.
But the controversy has spread beyond this single set of apps to a general indictment of the arbitrariness of the App Store approval process. Developers are pissed, and it seems they have every reason to be so. Riverturn, a company that made a third-party Google Voice app that had been approved and then wast later yanked from the store, provided a transcript of the frustrating, information-free conversation they had with an Apple rep on why this happened, which is frankly emblematic of the app store's general opacity to developers who have to put in a lot of effort before they have something to offer to be accepted or rejected. Layton Duncan of developer house Polar Bear Farm goes further, asserting that App Store economics essentially force virtually every app down to a $0.99 price point, turning the whole scene into a dollar store full of different fart apps not much else.
I have absolutely no doubt that all of this is true, and I understand that it must be incredibly frustrating to be a developer in this scenario, where you might get rich and you might get absolutely nothing. But here's the thing: nobody cares.
OK, the developers care, as does the small but loud cadre of geeky Apple watchers of various stripes. But this entire controversy is completely invisible, and largely meaningless, to the average consumer. There are tons of apps out there, and the consumers apparently can't get enough of fart apps, so they seem happy, for the most part. It's likely that if things were better for developers, more valuable (and more expensive) apps would come to the fore, but since they haven't, really, nobody particularly misses them.
As for Apple itself -- well, I found this bit from Duncan's diatribe interesting:
These problems can be directly attributed to the market conditions Apple have created through either a total and utter lack of planning and incompetence when building the App Store, or an intentional strategy set out to suppress application prices, with the sole intent of helping to drive device sales.
Why should we expect that Apple ever had any motivation other than driving device sales? With the vertigo-inducing markup on each unit, device sales are exactly what they're trying to drive. Sure, if there were lots of $10 apps doing well on the App Store, that'd make a lot of money, but if $0.99 fart apps sell ten times as well, then it's all the same from Apple's end.
Yes, in the long run, it's in Apple's interest for the iPhone to be a playground for really interesting (and, presumably, expensive) apps. But too many of the screeds I've read on this subject boil down to "It's impossible for me to make a living writing iPhone apps." The iPhone platform doesn't owe anyone a living except for the people who made it. If developers want this to change, they need to explain why it's in the interests of Apple and consumers for that to happen.
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