Back in April, I recommended Sean Kovacs’ GV Mobile app for the iPhone. Today, I learned that Apple has removed GV Mobile from the App Store. While I’m glad I purchased the app before this happened, I am disappointed because this means I can expect no updates to the product I paid for.
Then I read that Apple rejected the official Google Voice app six weeks ago, even though similar apps exist for the Blackberry and Google Android.
While I love my iPhone, this anticompetitive behavior on the part of Apple is starting to smack of United States v. Microsoft. Beyond all the ethical, antitrust considerations, it’s just bad business. Customers will not purchase applications if they can be yanked from the App Store on Apple’s whim. If the app no longer exists, you get no updates and you get no customer support from its developer(s).
I know iPhone developers whose apps have not been approved. Or whose apps have been approved and then subsequently rejected. There’s little or no explanation from Apple, leaving the developers to guess what prompted the rejection, revise and resubmit the app, cross their fingers, and hope for the best.
It’s time for Steve Jobs to write another open letter. This time, instead of pleading with the record labels to end DRM, he needs to convince his own employees to free the App Store from its Draconian policies. The excerpt below, in Jobs’ own words, could just as easily apply to what’s now happening with the App Store:
“If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies…Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.”
Mr. Jobs, tear down this wall!
