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Apple sells the phone. It's working 100%. User installs app, breaks phone. Apple takes blame? The trick here is see that: 1. If Apple is very paranoid and must

Apple sells the phone. It's working 100%. User installs app, breaks phone. Apple takes blame? The trick here is see that: 1. If Apple is very paranoid and must approve every single app, then it should rightly take the blame. 2. If Apple says it's free for all and users should realize that some apps are not that great, then it would rightly remove any blame thrown its way. Which is why I think the whole app approval process is absurd: Apple should stop approving apps and remove any associated blame. The path it's on right now is never going to scale or end well for Apple - all it would take is one bad slip and it's pretty much over. On the flip side is what Google does with Android: they're collecting tons of feedback every time someone uninstalls an app, including an option that says "this is a malicious app". Care to wager that this will be used in some kind of automated way to keep the app store clean? Not just that, they're empowering the user to make an informed decision. The Android app store tells you how many downloads the app gets, its star rating (out of 5 stars) and user comments. Before installing any app I read all this info and decide "hey, with 10,000 downloads and 4.5 stars, how bad can it be?" But then one more thing happens: the app store tells you what the application requests permission to do like access your location or full internet access or whatnot. You still can decide not to install if you see something fishy. I've seen many games request access to my contacts and they didn't get installed. So please tell me, how is Apple's way better in any regard?

pcc 17y ago
An anecdote: Two colleagues from different industries (one insurance, one technology) were Palm Treo users. After installing various 3rd party apps (not malicious but related to productivity things like emails, note taking etc), both of them started experiencing sporadic crashes of the phone, for example when attempting to answer incoming calls. One blamed Palm for his problems, the other blamed one of the app vendors. Neither wanted to live without those apps. Today both of them are iPhone users.
- pierrefar 17y ago
  That's quite funny. IMHO, that's a failure of Palm to market/position the Treo properly. The marketing message I think would work well for smartphones is that they allow you to do anything you want. There is an app for everything, all conveniently located in one place. Actually there is more than one. See which one works for you. Apple in all its marketing genius can pull this off. Honestly, I think they're the only company who can pull this off. My Google Android example above is certainly not part any marketing message I've heard - it's just there working in the background without anyone noting it.

pcc 17y ago

An anecdote: Two colleagues from different industries (one insurance, one technology) were Palm Treo users. After installing various 3rd party apps (not malicious but related to productivity things like emails, note taking etc), both of them started experiencing sporadic crashes of the phone, for example when attempting to answer incoming calls. One blamed Palm for his problems, the other blamed one of the app vendors. Neither wanted to live without those apps. Today both of them are iPhone users.

pierrefar 17y ago
That's quite funny. IMHO, that's a failure of Palm to market/position the Treo properly. The marketing message I think would work well for smartphones is that they allow you to do anything you want. There is an app for everything, all conveniently located in one place. Actually there is more than one. See which one works for you. Apple in all its marketing genius can pull this off. Honestly, I think they're the only company who can pull this off. My Google Android example above is certainly not part any marketing message I've heard - it's just there working in the background without anyone noting it.