Joe Hewitt on the App Store
Having said that, I have only one major complaint with the App Store, and I can state it quite simply: the review process needs to be eliminated completely.
Does that sound scary to you, imagining a world in which any developer can just publish an app to your little touch screen computer without Apple's saintly reviewers scrubbing it of all evil first? Well, it shouldn't, because there is this thing called the World Wide Web which already works that way, and it has served millions and millions of people quite well for a long time now.
Oh, but you say that iPhone apps are different, because they run native code and can do scary things that web pages can't? Again, you're wrong, because iPhone apps are sandboxed and have scarcely any more privileges than a web app. About the only scary thing they can do outside the sandbox is access your address book, but Apple can easily fix that by requiring they ask permission first, just like they must do to track your location.
Whatever coming-of-age story awaits Apple, it will almost certainly have to do with the App Store and the realization that the tighter you grip, sometimes you really do lose more sand.
A happy balance must be found. It'll be the best for everyone.
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