Everyone knows about the success of the iPhone app store. I've sung its praises on many occasions, most notably for the burst of innovation in mobile applications that it has allowed. Full marks to Apple for that.
For better or worse, Apple has adopted the 'Benevolent Dictator' model when it comes to managing the App Store. It now seems that what 'benevolent' means can depend on what side of the table you sit, and when.
This became clearer last week, and no one less that Google was caught out. Apple and Google have a deep, complex relationship, and were working together to bring Google Latitude, a friend-finding technology to the iPhone. Google had developed a native iPhone application, like it had for all the other major mobile phone OSs, as part of this discussion. Then the wheels came off. Apple decided no-can-do, and Google had to fall back to building a mobile Safari Latitude site for the iPhone. For Google, that's not the end of the world; the webkit enabled site works pretty well, and (more importantly) Google has no desire to sell the app.
But, the effect of this news like this has to be chilling among the Apple developer community. It's now VERY clear that Apple will limit App Store access to application that do (or will) not in any way conflict with their revenue plans. Got a great idea, and think you can out-Apple Apple? Well maybe your could, but you'll never get the chance.
And therein lies the rub. Like Google, you will never know this until your app comes back rejected. You cannot know this is going to happen, because Apple does not make a habit of pre-announcing its product plans. Google will not go out of business because of the Latitude reject. Smaller companies might not fair so well. Android and Symbian/Nokia have promised to be much more open in this regard. Lets hope that that is true, and developers reward their foresight.
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