There have been several comments made in the last few days in reference to Apple’s decision to block some Google Apps from the iTunes App Store, and the following FCC interest in that whole situation (which is bad bad bad) – the most interesting of which I think is Chris Messina’s thoughts about Steve Jobs and the almost suicidal direction the App Store is being driven. It’s an interesting read for many reasons but the core of it echos what many of us have been saying for a while now. While there are many roads to take, some of which might be very lucrative, they are all heading to one place and that one place is the web.
The platform to end all platforms is the web, that’s bee proven again and again at this point and really we’re just waiting for everyone to squeeze everything they can out of all the other platforms before jumping on the ship. It’s a bit frustrating in the same way it is to watch people make the same mistakes you did but know you can’t warn them because they won’t listen. Or maybe you do warn them but carry on anyway. This is the same thing in that we all know where it’s heading and where it’s going to end.
That’s not to say that developing things for the iPhone is a bad business choice. Apple has a lot of resources behind it and it’s not going away anything soon. There is plenty of money to be made on that platform in the short term. But the key point to that is to remember it is a short term, and that the App Store isn’t going to be the end all be all platform that every person with a computer uses. That’s the web.
Chris Messina August 2, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Exactly. I know my post was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but with the negativity swarming around the App Store, it’s hard to imagine that this is how Apple wants to be seen… that being said, it might still be a minority of folks complaining, but it also happens to be vocal ones.
What I think is “most wrong” about the App Store model is that it puts Apple squarely between the developer and his or her customer. And unless Apple is adding value by making that connection richer, then it’s harming that relationship and sequestering value.
In fact, I would support an Apple App Store if it promoted the same free and open technologies of the Palm Pre platform… but getting a bunch of folks focused on building apps that ONLY work on the iPhone is what kills it for me. This is what we have with the video game platform wars and why I can’t play Playstation games on my XBOX. There’s really little technical reason for this to be true — except that effort simply hasn’t been mustered to solve the cross-company compatibility problem with standards, in the way that it has on the web.
Anyway, I still love my iPhone — but I think a lot more people would be building for it if they realized that the web is (or at least will and should be) the platform of choice for long-term application development.