Posts tagged Firefox

Apple’s app store is great.  It really is.  There are tons of really incredibly apps.  But we can all agree that Apple’s dictatorial guidelines for letting apps into their store is frustrating.  Some apps that have no place being created are allowed in, while others are questionably left out.

These ridiculously arbitrary and sometimes stupid decisions are a serious problem that need to be fixed, but I want something else as well.  Apple’s insistence that no apps mimic the capabilities of their own makes absolutely no sense.  It seems that they just don’t want anyone to do something on their phone better than they did.  What’s irritating is that they pick and choose which of their apps they are OK with you duplicating the functionality of (apparently they really don’t give a damn about the notes app).

This lack of real clarity makes the big boys who might create competing apps to Calendar, Mail, and Safari unwilling to even start making an app because the chances it would be approved are minuscule.  Apple needs to remove some of these stupid restrictions and allow developers more leeway.  Someone tell me how Firefox/Fennec for the iPhone would be bad for sales.  Or Opera.  Or Thunderbird.

Could these unpredictable restrictions be the reason there’s no Gmail app?  If they’ve made one for Blackberry, why wouldn’t they want to make one for the iPhone.  Either they don’t think it would be accepted, or Apple doesn’t want them to because then it would make them seem pretty hypocritical (wait – they don’t care about that).

So please Apple.  Loosen the restrictions.  Let developers compete with your built-in apps.  It will benefit users, and maybe it will make you compete a little bit. (But then you wouldn’t be able to save features you should have had long ago for years and build them up when they do come out.  Here’s looking at you copy/paste, landscape keyboards in all your apps, and the eventual unified inbox.)

Oh also, I just wanted to throw a minor complaint in here.  Let me remove the built-in apps I don’t want.  I have an iPod Touch.  I have no need for Voice Memos.  And I’m sure everyone has an app or two they’d prefer to take off.