iPhone app developer quits over approval process
Apple's App Store boasts more than 100,000 apps and more than 2 billion downloads, but not all of its developers are as happy as some would think. One well-respected developer decided to call it quits.
Citing his frustration with the App Store approval process, Rogue Amoeba's Paul Kafasis said on his company's blog last week that he is throwing in the towel on iPhone app development after an exasperating three-and-a-half month app approval.
(Credit:
Rogue Amoeba)
"Rogue Amoeba no longer has any plans for additional iPhone applications, and updates to our existing iPhone applications will likely be rare," said Kafasis. "The iPhone platform had great promise, but that promise is not enough, so we're focusing on the Mac."
Kafasis' growing irritation with the App Store centers around an update he wanted to release for his Airfoil Speakers Touch iPhone app. The app allows users to receive audio from any Mac or Windows-based PC and the update fixed some issues with audio sync.
However, Apple rejected the update because it used images of Apple products in the app. The way Airfoil Speakers Touch works is that it shows you graphically what machine and application your audio is coming from on the host computer. If you are connected to an iMac running Safari, that's what will show up in the iPhone app.
This isn't something that Kafasis hacked together--this functionality is freely available as part of Mac OS X for developers to use. In fact, Airfoil Speakers Touch 1.0 was still in the App Store, approved by Apple, with these images.
"The only thing Apple's process was doing was preventing a needed bug-fix from reaching the hands of our mutual customers," said Kafasis.
(Credit:
Rogue Amoeba)
In order to get the fixes to customers, Kafasis took out all of the offending images and replaced them with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) logo. If you tap on the logo, you will be taken to a page explaining why the images have been removed.
Kafasis is asking users to consider donating to the EFF. While the organization isn't involved with his decision to place its logo in his app, "if Apple is to change, it may take such an organization to make it happen," he said.
As a developer, Kafasis also wants users to know the frustrations they have to go through to put out software. "We wanted to ship a simple bug fix, and it took almost four months of slow replies, delays, and dithering by Apple," said Kafasis. "All the while, our buggy, and supposedly infringing version, was still available. There's no other word for that but 'broken.'"
This isn't the end of the road for Kafasis. A Mac developer for 11 years, he will re-focus his efforts back to his many popular Mac applications and continue developing for that platform.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple. 
Anywhere he wants to.
Give Apple another banana.
Well past 5% as of October. Of course, Windows is well past 90%.
-mark d.
With the guy behind the Facebook app quiting, it should be sort of high profile now. IIRC, the Facebook is the most popular or most used app on the iPhone. When the guy behind that gets fed up with Apple's app approval process, you would think others would take notice. From what I read out of this article, this guy is not abandoning Apple... just apps for the iPhone because Apple seems to like some dyslexic bipolar Nazi witchdoctor when approving submissions.
Telling to people who doesn't understand what kind of thing it is for Facebook app developer to quit.
It may be 2 in this particular case, but Apple has done a lot to annoy iPhone devs. With Facebook, it's the biggest app on the iPhone... having that dev quit over Apple's stance on apps really is a big deal. There are a lot of other cases with lesser profile apps and devs who are equally frustrated... and while they may not be news worthy, it doesn't change the fact that Apple has absolutely no consistency whatsoever when it comes to approving apps and that's what all this boils down to.
If Apple maikes developing apps for the iPhone a painful process they will turn away a lot of the app developers that made them a success. That's their call, but I'm with the developer on this. Apple made it painful. They said "we got other markets that cause less pain" and moved on with life. Apples got a crappier app for their troubles.
I think you may be missing the point. If notable and highly respected developers leave the platform due to these problems, then that leaves people who are too busy making yet more flashlights and tip calculators.
I think Apple should be contacting these developers and working with them, not against them. Stop treating the developers who make your product successful as the enemy.
Excellent! Now the fart app has a better chance to grow "app share". Before you know it, everyone will have a great choice in fart apps. Need a good rasberry sound? There's a fart app for that. Need one for a super model after mexican dinner sound? There's a fart app for that. The fart app is already one of the top 10 downloads. Long live the fart app!
Is the sky falling? No, but there are definitely clouds on the horizon.
Fact is Apple has a policy towards its graphics AFA iphone dev is concerned. So why does the developer do not change his app on the desktop to publish a diff image or just publish a name. Come on now, frustration is when your expectations are not met. But how about getting frustrated when you do not meet expectation. Can you?
That's the confusion the developer is facing. It's becoming a gamble to see what will or will not be accepted. Do you spend a lot of resources in time and money to develop an application only to take a 50/50 chance it *might* be accepted? That's not a bet some developers or companies are willing to take a chance on.
Now, I happen to think that Jim's a pretty decent journalist, but journalism in general has degraded over the past couple of decades.
All this hassle over a couple of pictures. And to top it off, I bet fair use would cover his use of the pictures, and that Apple had no right to say they "infringed" on anything.
Oh well, if Apple wants to drive away their app developers, they're doing a good job.
I hope the trend reverses so they can get back to answering resentful questions from custumers who never read the manual. Hey i paid $15.00 ***! Just kidding...
The app store has 10,000 applications, not developers, and most of the applications are free software written by 15-year olds. This is just the tip of the iceberg, you can't spend time and money to develop an application if Apple might just arbitrarily turn it down or take an exceedingly long time to approve it. That's not a business model that anyone can survive on, and it's a business model that's going to lead people to Android. The Appstore thrived because there was nothing else out there, but when people see legitimate alternatives, you can bet they're going to drop it just like this guy did.
So Thelemurking what phone do you have and how many apps do you pay for and use?
I have a wonderful windows mobile phone, with all the apps I can ever need downloaded and installed. Even a nice, free, VNC app that lets me connect to my machine at home...way better than the crappy apple vnc app for the iphone.
I think this the point of the post at which I stopped reading as it was clearly all fantasy.
I guess overall, you stand out against the norm. I think for fun, I will just ask on Facebook how many apps my iPhone friends have bought and how many apps they use on a regular basis. While it won't be a real scientific study, 30 some people from all walks of life and different parts of the country should at least give me a pretty good idea... even though, there's already been a lot of surveys that state what I have already said.
Then again, every time I update my Wikipedia app, I am warned that it may not be suitable for children under 17. Guess that explains why they would reject a dictionary app that contained foul language! How very 1984 of them.
100,000 apps have garned approval for the App Store, so there certainly isn't any big problem with the approval process. With that kind of volume, some people are going to get lost in the system. This guy just got unlucky.
It'll be interesting to watch how quality control issues for apps on the Droid evolve, because they are coming without a doubt.
Interesting article, while I like that Apple wants to provide "quality control" for their apps, it seems that they've gone way overboard. Won't be long until something snaps...
come join our MS team!! :-)
let Apple die.
die Apple die!!
No, my decision will have no impact. The point is, I am sure I am not alone. Apple is pissing away their advantage, much the way WordPerfect Corp squandered its market position with willful and hubristic ignorance of market realities.
- by AluminumMonster November 16, 2009 12:07 PM PST
- Im sure some kind from Korea has already replaced him.
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