Apple bans "Android" from app store

One more jab to report -- It appears that Apple has decided that any references to Android in App Store applications should be immediately removed, or risk being taken down. A developer of a small app called "Flash of Genius", which was named as one of the finalists in the Android Developer Challenge, was unable to leverage that fact for marketing purposes on their iPhone app. Is this really necessary?

As much as I dislike the way Android Market has turned out, I can't help but think Apple may very well contribute to Google's success. Apple's very strict review process does two things -- it ensures quality of apps, and royally ticks off developers. Developers are what make the App Store successful, and by treating them this way, Apple will ultimately suffer.

Imagine a developer spends 6 months building an app, and only after it is complete Apple says "no" to his or her application. Why would that developer ever potentially waste that much time again by doing it all over?

The absence of a review program is not the answer though -- reviews are an important way to make sure quality of applications stays high. I'm contradicting myself by saying this, right? Good eye -- How can I argue that there should and shouldn't be a review process?

Well, how about a hybrid approach?

1) Allow people to submit and download any application regardless of their approval status? 2) Ones that have been "approved" (by Google, or better yet, the community) are placed into a "Premium" market 3) As food for thought, perhaps the "non-approved" applications should be required to be free, and similarly, "Premium approved" apps should be required to charge at least $0.99 cents.

A requirement to charge for apps will make developers happy, because they aren't competing with free apps at that point -- and if every great app costs at least a little bit, users will get used to it, great developers of Android apps will actually make money.

What do you think?