Arrogant Apple good for Google

Another one of the prospective Apple App Store applications bites the dust! The application in question is the Podcaster. Podcaster enables people to download podcasts to their devices directly without going through iTunes. Apple thinks that’s a bad idea since iTunes already gives that function. The result – Podcast rejected from App Store. 

So what’s Apple’s policy for App Store applications? Apparently only two entities are in the know. God and Apple. I am pretty sure God is not interested in it. As for Apple, they want to control everything in their eco-system. Controlling everything is fine for stuff that Apple creates. But how can they intend to exercise this same level of control over third-party applications.

Time and again we have heard that Apple’s policy of examining each and every application that goes on the App Store is to ensure quality and stop malicious and offensive content. Malicious we can understand, but what is the yardstick that Apple employs to determine offensiveness? There have been no answers from Apple on this.

Here is a list of a few of the apps that have been axed by Apple from the App Store for no reason:

• Podcaster
• I Am Rich
• Pull My Finger
• NetShare
• A comic book

In not publishing a clear policy of conformance for application developers, Apple is actually hurting itself. Already a lot of developers have vented their frustration over such high-handed behavior. Yet they still stick to Apple because of the popularity of its portable devices. But for how long? After all there is a limit to everything. Unfortunately Apple is not ready to listen to their woes.

A potential winner may be Google’s Android powered mobile phones. People have expressed their concerns about the viability of Android phones without a vibrant eco-system to sustain its growth. Google has answered that, even though partially, with the Android Market. What remains to be seen is how popular the Android phones become. Google can bolster this popularity by making the hosting policy for applications on the Android Market more open and transparent. Maybe even have community participation in forming a policy. This would surely encourage developers to write content for Android. In fact, if Android becomes a success, we might see a lot of switch in allegiance from Apple to Google. If this happens Apple will only have itself to blame.