A brilliant and compelling argument for why the iPhone needs competition: poor treatment of developers by the Apple iPhone App Store. Essayist and programmer Paul Graham details what should have been obvious:
- Software developers are dissatisfied with monopolistic and capricious practices in Apple’s approval process for new iPhone apps.
- These practices make Apple resemble the IBM it lampooned in the “1984″ television commercial.
- A monopoly in app phone development is undesirable.
- The only real hope for competition is Google’s Android, but Google cares more about search than about app phones.
- Good programmers can choose where they work, and they don’t like to work for a company that treats other programmers poorly.
- Irritated app phone programmers will jump to a new platform as soon as it becomes available.
Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, defends the store in a discussion with Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek. Unfortunately for Schiller, Paul Graham hands him his hind-end.
