How is the free market not working with the App store? It's not like Steve Jobs is holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy his product -- you don't like it, don't buy it. A dictator by definition restricts your options. But you have plenty of options other than Apple or the App store -- they aren't the only game in town ;-)

That Apple and the App store hasn't been gutted and torn a new orifice shows me that the free market is working just fine for them ...

Well, I haven't read anybody here saying Apple is invulnerable, so ... =)



Ah, not really -- a unified experience not enforced by a mandate loses ... well ... a unified experience, as the developers who elect not to adhere to the format spin the experience off in different directions (which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, conceptually, but Apple would certainly crash and burn on the user experience side of things) ...

For the same reason, a car that was built to be able to use all existing parts from all manufacturers would probably run, but due to the compromises necessary would also probably end up being a pretty crappy car to actually drive ... ;-)

I would think that would harden the Apple Unified User Experience armor.

You buy the car and equip it with non-OEM junk, and it doesn't work right. You go all-OEM and it does - Everybody learns their lesson, and you've won hearts, minds and everything else. I think you win a lot bigger that way. Winning settles all the unresolved disputes, well, I guess if you've won fairly. A rigged outcome never settles anything. A pure out and out win settles stuff. Stomp terra and crush the opposition.

An outstanding article on the subject (by an iPhone dev) http://bit.ly/cOwIlT

That might work conceptually, but in practice I doubt teaching people a lesson on how badly things can run on your product is very good business. First, regardless of who's at fault, people will be having a bad experience on *your* product -- the user will be associating a bad experience with your product even if it's with some third-party app. And second, you're exposing yourself to the very credible risk that consumers will blame your platform and not the offending piece of software for that bad experience ...

Better, I would think, to provide somewhat less options for your customers in the name of guaranteeing quality standards -- especially if that's what you're trading your name on in the first place -- than to have your product become known as a free-for-all, hit-or-miss experience ...

That, plus -- as Zwei's linked blog pointed out -- it's not in Apple's best interests to be beholding to third party vendors who's products become too big to break ...

I'm beginning to think that it's not just with Adobe - Flash in particular. Apple is pushing HTML5 which seems to me that it will eventually kill QuickTime and M$s Silverlight and a whole lot of other third party, proprietary content delivery methods/apps. For those who may have not run across Silverlight authored content, it's a better experience than Flash.

Yeah, that's a great article. I should quit this, though, as I don't really care that much, and things will be what they're gonna be.

Reality:


That stuff might be right, but unnecessary, because Apple's absolutely right about not pre-empting releases because developers can't hang. Boo hoo. It's not like they're on a Linux cycle (where a lot of open-source developers don't have a problem keeping pace with, yet commercial developers could never).

This is the kind of problem that just gets worse over time, not better, if you don't nip it in the bud. This can only go from worse to worse, especially given it's technology.

Developers just have to quit whining and take their shot and take their chances. If they can't hang, they can't hang - Tough sh!t, separate the wheat from the chaf. Jeeze, they've done this before, under a lot more adverse developer criteria, and when Apple had a lot more tenuous position/circumstances.

And Apple needs to allow this (basically) selection process. A developer relationship is one thing - Babysitting adults is another. You don't want to be in the babysitting business or else it takes over everything.

I like that developer comment, something along the lines of: Who cares about the developer? What about what the user cares about? These guys don't get it - Apple just needs to focus on what they do brilliantly, the user, what's worked for them. Fuk the developers, this isn't about them - It's about the user, stupid. Focus on the user, yet extend the right and means to developers to fuk themselves. As long as they focus on the user, Apple wins. Clean kill, fair fight - That will put that stuff to rest once and for all. Otherwise, any other way, that stuff never fully resolves. They need to fix this now before it goes from worse to worse.

Hey, did you check out Google's Quake II in HTML5 at 30pfs?

Ed

Obviously I'm unfit for these companies like Apple, as you do need a developer relationship, and I have zero aptitude for babysitting adults.

BTW: Flash sucks. Kill it. Sooner the better.

Really, this stuff is more about Flash, Farmville, Facebook, etc, grossly overvalued more than their actual small worth expendable stuff. Who cares? I mean, really, Facebook, social networking is a Boomer thing, and Boomers' attention spans are even worse than their children's or grandchildren's. They'll piss and moan when stuff breaks, then next day on to something else as is their DNA. Nobody will really miss that stuff.

The sooner Adobe and Apple get over their individual beefs, the better it could be for everybody. The OS 4.0 iPhone won't run Adobe flash - though it's tempting to mock Apple zealots who got payday cash advances to get in line to purchase their new trinket and won't stop slobbering - ha ha, it doesn't do every little thing Droid Does! - and here I thought the idea behind smart phones was adaptability and functioning as a PC and cell phone at once. (It's like they're overrated or something.) Apple DOES have a point, in that Adobe eats up a fair volume of computing, and the iPhone OS does feature code that will translate Flash into an iPhone friendly version.

Doing common tasks well > Doing all things

Except that non-OEM brakes usually will stop a car shorter and more consistently, and non-OEM clutch will usually last longer and perform better. Often for less money too. :P