App Store. Again.
Since the last time, the App store has got better (no NDA) and worse (more apps banned capriciously, like MailWrangler). There were lots of good posts on why it’s a mess, but Gruber probably comes closest to the money. Though not quite.
It’s foolish and unnecessary — the fact that iTunes is wide open to total competition on both Mac OS X and Windows hasn’t hurt it at all
Except that iTunes isn’t open to total competition, not even slightly. The jukebox is, sure, but not the stack — from store to music in your pocket. Amazon can make an MP3 store; a desktop jukebox could even tie into it. To compete with the whole thing, though, they need to be on the iPod. Or have a device that beats its 70%+ marketshare. Nobody right now is in a position to compete with all three. The battle would be a lot easier, though, if they could write custom software for the iPod. Which is why Apple’s cagy about it.
But Mail? Why on earth should Apple care if some third-party email client for the iPhone becomes wildly popular? It makes no sense
I’m not so sure. To be fair: MailWrangler getting junked surprised me a lot, even though it looks like a crappy app. Apple’s reason was the possibility of confusion, which doesn’t make much sense. Until you think about all the other apps that integrate with mail — since there’s no copy and paste on the phone, if you want to send data about you’d better hope it has a “send with mail” button. Which will always go to Mail.app.
Potential for confusion there, when Mail.app opens instead of MailWrangler? Possibly, I guess. It would sure make the phone’s integration seem junky.
I have a theory. It is more, well, emotional than logical. But it’s the only theory I can think of that makes any sense at all and fits the available evidence.
Except it does none of these things. Probably because Gruber’s looking for an over-arching theory on this (everybody who cares is too, frankly), but I don’t think there is one to be had. Apple is rejecting apps on a case-by-case basis: Podcaster for threatening the crown, MailWranger for being confusing. There is little similar between the two.
In fact his whole “it’s just the four dock apps” thing barely holds up. There are other apps that run in the background — Calendar, SMS, Maps, Clock and possibly Remote — which blows “background processing is the one factor that unites the four dock apps” out of the water.
Regardless, these are niggles with his asides, not his argument. He is right that developers will be uncertain and unwilling until the rules are clear and are stuck to. I know why Apple doesn’t want them that way, as it’s an invitation for lawyers (legal or otherwise) to start manning the barricades on behalf of RealPlayer Mobile Extreme or something, but that’s a bridge they can cross later.
This problem is a bridge they need to cross now. Because the novelty of to-do lists and RSS readers is wearing thin.