The Mac blogosphere has been embroiled in a controversy over the banning of a podcasting application from the App Store.
Here’s the 30 second recap:
- Developer creates touch application that allows users to download podcasts directly to the iPhone over the network thus bypassing iTunes.
- Apple rejects podcasting application stating: “Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”
- People over react. Twice.
- Gruber writes a long post. on why this sucks.
- Roughly Drafted writes a long counter post.
- Gruber gets a headache.
- Roughly Drafted offers Gruber Advil.
- Roughly Drafted tries to milk page views.
And so on and so forth.
There has already been way to much wailing and teeth gnashing, and so I am loathe to add to the discussion. But while Gruber may be a little too much on the sky-is-falling side of things, Dilger is just plain wrong.
Dilger:
I cited section 3.3.3 of the iPhone SDK as the most basic reason why Apple denied the Podcaster app from App Store distribution. …he [Gruber] seems to be unaware that the entire point of Podcaster is to download podcasts rather than stream them in realtime. That is a feature provided through a distribution mechanism that is other than iTunes.
Erroneus! Apple allows, nee promotes, applications that in Dilger’s view, violate §3.3.3 of the iPhone SDK. Take Datacase which is currently being promoted on the front page of the App Store. Its sole purpose is to distribute content around iTunes. In fact you can load all sorts of audio and video files for playback on your iPhone with Datacase. Loading audio and video onto your iPhone or iTouch for playback is the quintessential definition of duplicating iTunes functionality. And there are others, like Air Sharing (also on the App Store front page) that do the same thing.
All in all too many pixels have been used over an application that seems to be making the developer some very good money. There are two lessons I draw from this. First and foremost is this is just bush league from Apple. MobileMe was bush league. iPhone software 2.0 was bush league. And this is bush league. Apple needs to decide what it will and will not allow and be clear and upfront about it. If it can’t do that, it needs to err on the side of allowing more in than keeping more out. We all might have liked them to be more restrictive, what with the 50 lighter and pointless to do apps clogging up the store, but since that ship has sailed, let’s not start being a gatekeeper and blocking useful apps.
The second lesson is that Apple’s half assed response created a firestorm, which in turn created publicity, which in turn actually made it profitable to violate §3.3.3 of the iPhone SDK. At this point the developer is releasing the app over an AD HOC distribution network that seriously bends/breaks the known language and permissions of the iPhone SDK. And by some accounts the developer has made 11,000 USD from this distribution mechanism other than iTunes. Perhaps getting rejected was the best thing that happened to Podcaster.