The problem is when you publish to the app store, you are - in essence - partnering with Apple and I'd imagine you would examine any partnership before consenti

The problem is when you publish to the app store, you are - in essence - partnering with Apple and I'd imagine you would examine any partnership before consenting to it. Furthermore, there are real liability issues here for Apple. To assume they blindly publish anything that comes their way puts them at pretty serious risk. Due to the way the app store is structured, the review process is required. That said, judging for content versus judging for bad code are entirely different things and I personally don't think Apple should be incorporating content vetting into their process. Finally, Apple should provide the ability for third parties to supply applications outside of the App Store ecosphere. I've said it before, but it makes no sense to me that the iPhone is treated any differently than a laptop when the only massive difference between the two is the 3G chip and access to the cellular network. Could you imagine your laptop locked down in that way? It wouldn't sell. So why the disconnect with the iPhone? I don't know.