Apple Bans Podcasting App From App Store
Sep 12th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: iPhoneAlmerica has asked Apple for clarification on the rejection, and asked Apple “what I must do in order for the app to be approved.”
Apple needs to give Almerica a sensible response, or it bodes ill for podcasting on the iPhone and the iPhone ecosystem in general.
Update:Â Others are picking up on this story and it’s blowing up in Apple’s face:
- John Gruber at Daring Fireball says “The App Store concept has trade-offs. There are pros and cons to this model versus the wide-open nature of Mac OS X. There are reasonable arguments to be made on both sides. But blatantly anti-competitive exclusion of apps that compete with Apple’s own? There is no trade-off here. No one benefits from such a policy, not even Apple. If this is truly Apple’s policy, it’s a disaster for the platform. And if it’s not Apple’s policy, then Podcaster’s exclusion is proof that the approval process is completely broken.’
- Blubrry’s Todd Cochrane says “The walled garden of Apple has become very apparent and based on these reports it appears that Apple is becoming a little bit like Microsoft used to be.”
- Exposure developer Frasier Speirs says “I will never write another iPhone application for the App Store as currently constituted. Apple’s current practice of rejecting certain applications at the final hurdle – submission to the App Store – is disastrous for investor confidence. Developers are investing time and resources in the App Store marketplace and, if developers aren’t confident, they won’t invest in it. If developers – and serious developers at that – don’t invest, what’s the point?”
I had an iPhone app in development, so I guess thats on hold now until there is some clarification. Although this might just be some kid at apple freaking out and applying the brakes so it can be looked into more carefully by someone upline?
In the end, this kind of thing will only end up hurting apple. Podcasting suffers largely because most people use iTunes and the podcast section of iTunes sucks. iTunes sucks because it’s got no competition. It seems to me that Apple wants to podcasting to flourish, but what podcasting needs in order to flourish is more innovation… which is never going to happen if Apple just squashes every and any alternative.
Zune has embraced podcasting, what has Apple done for podcasters?
James – Apple has increased the audience for podcasts a thousand-fold, and created an easy to use podcast system that offers mainstream audiences 150,000 podcasts.
But – this rejecting apps after they’re developed because they’re competitive is BS!
But of course no-one wants to download a podcast away from their desktop right? Err…
I suspect the usual protectionism from Apple is on stream, who’s going to bet me they have their own Podcasting app waiting in the wings for HDSPA support (I forget the iPhone doesn’t have WiFi or does it?) or somesuch faster mobile technology.
And the person who said Apple has done loads for podcasting – that was nearly 4 years ago. Apart from adding video shortly after tbh they’ve done very little since except mess podcasters around with odd closed specs for video and RSS and suchlike. Out of the millions of iPods IHNI which to encode for video, and I’ve been podcasting before Apple even took note and video WAY before that – Zeus help any poor soul who is a n00b at this.
And so podcasting remains the realm of the geek and major broadcaster. Sigh.
[…] There’s a bit of a kerfuffle brewing up in the gadgetosphere over the rejection of a podcasting app for the iPhone that was rejected by Apple as it duplicates iTunes functionality. As John Gruber notes over at Daring Fireball, this wouldn’t be such a big deal if Apple’s App Store wasn’t the only point of legal distribution for applications, but it’s stifling competition and innovation when Apple starts rejecting apps to protect its monopolistic hegemony. More on this here, here, here, and here. […]
[…] It continues: Apple also refuses applications for no other reason than that they compete with iTunes. It even stirred up some bad press. Apples solution: Make the rejection letters […]