While Apple’s App Store has been king of its particular hill, there are indications that at least some developers are getting annoyed at its policies — and are increasingly developing for other platforms, such as Google’s Android. Now Apple is beginning to push back.
In an interview Sunday with Business Week, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide marketing, defended the company’s policy of selecting which applications it allows in the online store.
A Store ‘People Trust’
The intention, Schiller said, has been to build “a store for the most part that people trust.” This has meant being highly selective about what applications are accepted. The App Store now has more than 100,000 apps, more than any other app store for mobile devices, but it’s also dealing with about 10,000 new submissions every week.
Schiller said the store’s role is to decide which products end up on its shelves, much as any quality retailer would.
Apple has said app rejections that have gained attention in the developer community are mostly for technical reasons. According to Schiller, the rejections have included apps that help steal content or personal information, as well as apps with illegal use of trademarks or with inappropriate content.
To deal with apps that are accepted but whose content is not for kids, the App Store has added parental controls to block certain titles. These include apps with adult content or depictions of violence.
This gatekeeper role by the maker of the device does not exist for the unlimited range of software that is available for PC or Mac users. However, the market for third-party applications for mobile devices was fragmented until Apple demonstrated the value of an online store.
From 70 to 20 Percent?
At the same time that Apple is facing these issues, Google may be seeing an opening for its growing Android platform….