Excellent news!! Apple is acting anti-competitively here and need to be punished. Actually, they need to be split up into 20 different companies but one thing at a time.
When federal regulators in Washington approved Google’s acquisition of AdMob, they did so largely because Apple’s arrival in the game - with its new iAds business - created a competitive environment in mobile advertising.
But just a few weeks later, regulators are reportedly eyeing the mobile ad business again - but this time it’s Apple on the hot seat. According to a Financial Times report, regulators are interested in the change of terms that Apple has imposed on developers regarding advertising on apps developed for its products.
Earlier this week, Google-owned AdMob challenged the change of language in Apple’s iOS terms because, as written, the terms “prohibit app developers from using AdMob and Google’s advertising solutions on the iPhone.” The company argued that the change “threatens to decrease - or even eliminate - revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers” because it limits their choice of how best to make money.
Aside from whatever Washington might do on this matter, Apple clearly wants to keep its developer community happy. Case in point: at the developer’s conference keynote this week, Steve Jobs made a point of addressing the company’s app review and approval process, painting a picture of how their reviewers do a good job of getting through the thousands of app submissions in a timely manner and that only those apps that don’t work are the ones that get denied.
What he didn’t address was the extended waits or lack of explanations that developers complain about when dealing with the company. One of them, appsfire.com, this morning finally threw up its hands and surrendered to Apple’s waiting game tactics.
In a blog post titled, “Apple, you win: we’re pulling out of the app store. for now,” the company blasts Apple for avoiding them for the past 56 days for an update to a previously-approved app, one that is losing interest among its users because it desperately needs an update. In the blog post, which started with a “Dear Apple Inc.,” the company writes:
Your app-roval process is full of holes; you have approved Appsfire v1.0 last August and wished you hadn’t because almost no one had any real clue about discoverability issues back then - indeed, we were the very first to address this issue in an app. Now you know what’s at stake, so you’ve locked-down every aspect of the SDK ToS. Which is probably why you wouldn’t write anything to us for 56 days re: Appsfire v2.0, despite our numerous calls, emails, and high level contacts (period during which you had no problem approving similar apps). Was your intent to shut us down by playing the waiting game until the legal team had caught up? The problem remains, in fact we don’t even know what the problem might be since you are not talking to us. So now, we’re doing you a favor. We’re pulling Appsfire v1.0 so that you don’t have to. Besides, we have so much content now that this old v1.0 is choking on it; but you won’t let us update it to optimize the user experience. We care about our users, and like you, we go to great lengths to ensure the best experience.
The problem, of course, is that appsfire is only one developer of one app. So, if they walk away, it’s no big deal, right? But I can’t imagine that appsfire is the only developer feeling this way. I’ve heard these stories of this same sort of waiting game.
And clearly, so has Steve Jobs and other developers. Otherwise, why would he make a point of bringing it up in front of 5,000 of them during his keynote speech this week?
