This [LIFTED] wouldn't happen:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/bl ... g-software

Andr01d pwns the iPhone.

Apple really will have to start allowing more 3rd party influence to their devices, historically a closed door approach = fail.

I'm sure Apple will take notice of such concerns... at some point in the future when they aren't making huge profits and don't have $40billion in the bank. Right now though anyone thinking Apple are going to change their ways is doing a fair impression of King Canute. For all the flim flam and corporate branding, fundamentally while their stuff still sells they see no reason to change their ways. It's all about the Benjamins as the phrase used to go.

However, I should argue one thing - . I can only refer you to games consoles, which have operated that way for decades. Nintendo have just made huge mountains of cash and fought from third to first in an open market with just such a device. A closed door approach has some history of being tolerated by the market when it's linked to a commodity device. The major point however is there really is no history in the app store market because two years ago the paradigm simply didn't exist in any tangible way. Me, I have no idea at all which model (buy from us only or buy from anywhere) people are more likely to prefer in the long run.

Oh I have no doubt they won't change, the just should before, rather than after profits start to dip.

Apple will change its business practices when it is forced to by law, until that happens they will continue as they are doing raking in the profits.

Lulwut

Games consoles aren't a closed device (at least on the most part), any developer who has the cash for a dev kit can buy one, doesn't even have to be a games company, I know my university and at least one other in Scotland have a large number of Gamecube dev kits for teaching. Nintendo provide a very comprehensive SDK and documentation to go with it. On the Wii they also provide parts for WiiWare. Microsoft does the same with the XBox and they are easy to get under an NDA, and also make it easy for indie developers to get involved with the Indie games scene. I can't comment on Sony as I haven't used their kit.

Apple however have a very closed approach in that they only provide a very limited number of APIs that can be used and operate a contradictory approach in verifying application submissions. Apps can only use public APIs and must not duplicate existing functionality yet Opera and a number of other apps do this from big companies. They deny submissions purely on a basis that they dont want it competing with other applications and operate with a very secretive manner and never give much information about why applications have been denied.

End of the day they can do what they want, until laws change no business has to change how they operate within the law, whether people like it or not.

I'm sorry, if you haven't ever actually tried to go through the submission and authorisation procedures to get something put out in public for a games console (be it PSN/WiiWare/XBLA or on disk) you have no real clue as to whether the games console makers are more open than Apple or not. Whether the SDK is available is a completely spurious issue - the iPhone SDK costs $99 and can be bought by absolutely anyone and all the documentation is available publicly on the web. Tell me where on Sony's website I can download the API docs for the PS3? No?
The app store submission process is procedurally broken but in terms of actually getting some code out to make money from, it's really not all that different to the way Sony/MS/Nintendo do it. if you think they don't also make completely arbitrary decisions during the submission process you're in for a horrible surprise should you ever get to that point. Apple also technically fulfills the role which in the games market is taken on by the publishers who are notoriously capricious. The only real difference is Apple have taken it into their heads to do things retrospectively, which you can't readily do when stuff goes out on disk; although even then it has happened (ref: Sony pulling LittleBigPlanet off the shelves due to it having a song which quoted the Koran in it). There have also been games that have been pulled from PSN before now. I don't know if it's happened on XBLA but I know it's technically possible to do so.

Actually, the more I think about the details, the more the app store actually resembles the console model. The main difference is Sony/MS/Nintendo have been doing it longer so they generally make less of an arse of it. And console game makers need to keep them sweet, so they're less likely to kick up a fuss in public when things don't got well.


This is true, although (as has been mentioned) some of the things they've been doing do seem to be on dodgy legal ground, especially when you consider they're effectively publishing things internationally.

Ok your comments there are completely pointless, and as matter of fact I have for indie games on the Xbox 360 and Windows Mobile marketplace. I also have experience of internal submission procedures so I do have a clue. I worked with senior developers who have worked at a number of games studios, and with friends who work for AAA developers on projects using these verification proceses. I developed a game using the official Dolphin SDK. I am perfectly aware of which is more open in terms of accessing some docs for an SDK

Sony provide the documentation with the development hardware, as one is useless without the other, considering anyone can already own an iPhone or iPod Touch your argument on accessibility for the documentation is pretty moot.



Again have done and on technical levels there is very little that is declined that does not break the conditions of submission.


Well they don't just fulfil the role of publisher but also the verification team similar to that for Xbox that validate the technical aspects such as the hopper testing and the core use case testing such as not breaking during the use of online services etc.



Again speaking on the Microsoft side from experience I know I can choose to only distribute in certain countries should I choose to. If Apple choose not to they choose to limit their own usefulness

+1

Apple will probably change but not quickly. They have no need to right now. They are probably trying to maintain a walled garden approach so they can sell to kids with their parents happy to buy as a porn free area, ignoring the fact that the internet is filled with porn.

A LOT less than you might think actually