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His point is the exact opposite of what you're saying. He's alluding to the fact that Apple's application review process has as much, or more, to do with your
by tannerburson 17y ago
His point is the exact opposite of what you're saying. He's alluding to the fact that Apple's application review process has as much, or more, to do with your success than whether your users love the app or not. If Apple decides to reject you, or reject a needed update, or even just delay it for an extraordinary amount of time, you're out of business.
This is the exact opposite of a web app, or a linux app, or even a desktop OSX app. You write it, you distribute it, and it's on you to make it successful.
- bmj 17y agoTrue, but if you don't think that model is fair, then don't write software for it. I agree that the AppStore model is flawed, and doesn't promote the sort of freedom that most developers (and users) are used to, but apparently many, many developers, and many, many users either think it is okay, or haven't thought about it at all. If enough developers wised up, then perhaps Apple would make changes to the model. I suspect, however, that we won't see that sort of groundswell anytime soon.
- tannerburson 17y agoYou have to go a step farther, if you agree that the model is flawed, don't buy the device, and tell others why you've made that decision. Which is exactly what Corey is proposing (and doing). We won't see groundswell against this kind of thing, unless we help to create it by educating potential customers.
- bmj 17y agoAgreed, and I don't take issue with Doctorow's position. My point is that plenty of developers and consumers seem to rather like the App Store model. And I can see how that won't change, at least for developers. Yes, you pay $100 a year, and yes, Apple ultimately decides if your app is worthy, but for a lot of devs, this is actually a win, as they don't have to market their software.
- st3fan 17y agoYou make an important point but he does not talk about the approval process. He talks about the audience.
- neilc 17y agoApple's application review process has as much, or more, to do with your success than whether your users love the app or not. That is absurd. There are 150,000+ apps on the App Store. Those have all passed Apple's review process, by definition. And yet only a very small percentage of those approved apps are popular/profitable. Building an app that people love is much harder, and much more important to your success, than simply passing the App Store review. If you stay within the fairly well-known guidelines, passing the App Store review is a very low bar to clear.
- prodigal_erik 17y agoHow many apps were rejected? Without the denominator we have no idea whether or not surviving review is actually difficult, only the reviewers' very poor reputation for mostly just approving trivially reviewable apps like fart button #148272.