NYT: Apple Moves to Tighten Control of App Store

[RockdaMan]

go steelers! go black eyed peas!

[Fbone]

This is one reason why Amazon and other retailers don't release specific sales figures.

It gets them in trouble.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

go steelers! go black eyed peas!

Bet you are now a closet Cheese Head!! Seriously though, fun game this year though a bit fugly in the execution as neither QB was sharp and the receivers missed more balls plopped right into their hands than I can ever remember seeing in a Super Bowl. And the play calling, on both sides, was often very puzzling. The Steelers had one series in, as I recall early in the 2nd half where the play calling was really difficult to understand, but hey if you don't mix it up bad things can happen, bad things man (ok who here is old enough to get and giggle at that reference??? ) Some great commercials as always too. Nice game to use to waste a Sunday afternoon.

OK, back to reader options. I stumbled across what I feel might be the best potential platform on which to build a large slate device but need to write it up for it's own thread. Funny as I am very fluent in the OS it uses but haven't considered it since about 1991 I made a command decision to move in a different direction not because the OS was not powerful but because development tools were too limited at the time. To this day it is probably the best and most stable OS I ever work with. More later.

[snipenekkid]

BTW, not to single her out, but Maggie is one of those great users who offers cogent feeback from a competent perspective that us developers would typically be willing to sell our first born, even if they are 40 (heck ESPECIALLY if they are 40!! hahahaha), to obtain. I really mean this. Her feedback not only considers the business side for the companies she considers but also is stead fast in knowing and expressing her individual needs. Plus she is willing to consider other options which will always keep us small developers on our toes.

I only mention this to point out what, to me, is the real value in her comments here on MR. I remember when she first showed and how she completely won over by the iPod or iOS platform. Now if you consider her opinion over the whole content dust up, if she is one user then there are likely tens of thousands to millions of others world wide who will just quietly switch to other options without even mentioning a thing.

Look at how easily people switch phones, even the "smart phones" based solely on the cellular contract price. Start shrinking the already restrictive access to content on a device under the iOS platform running on devices better classed as mobile PC's not merely phones or video consumption devices, but shrink that very important ability to choose where, how and with what data people use their phones with the hammer of potentially losing access to already purchased data hanging over their head, even if that threat comes indirectly via the app attrition sue to a developer deciding to not continue supporting the platform because of Apple's sudden change of heart.

But just the hint that Apple can take away the $1000's people spent on content and few won't to be willing to just walk away from it. Kindle book users as well as B&N, etc all have options on other platforms. Add to that that it's not as if Apple can legally let you read Kindle content without Amazon's Kindle Reader app and as we have all discussed here, it could get dicey. I think this type of situation is being glossed over. Amazon, B&N and others are not powerless here. They, Amazon and other app developers, just need to explain to users that their apps were approved but due changes within Apple it will no longer be financially possible to continue supporting the iOS devices in future release. But that the reader app the users are losing within the iOS platform is and will continue to be fully supported as well as enhanced on all the other current non-iOS devices. They are sorry but it was Apple's sudden change in policy enforcement practices which forces, heck it completely prevents, from continuing to support the reader app as currently written for iOS devices even though the app was already approved as compliant by Apple's own all vetting process.

Consumers will likely not look at Amazon as the bad-guy here, some will for sure as this is a case of billionaires fighting over our pennies, but I am suspecting far more consumers or users like Maggie as well as myself and Buddy too, will look at Apple in a different light as we were actually won over by not just the design of the UI on the devices but we actually bought the Apple rhetoric that choosing Apple was always going to be the safe and easier option to the end user, Apple has our back sort of thing.

Now, suddenly the user sees this might not actually be the case. And from then on the user, even if they stay with the iOS platform, well have some degree of unease with their decision making future loyalty something they will re-evaluate when it comes time to update their devices.

Like others, I hope this settles not just to the total benefit of the user, since hey it was our money we spent, but also lets Apple realize, customer wise, they have moved outside the comfort zone of just their loyal core users who truly just love the Apple brand off into a place were people expect consistency and appreciation for deciding to buy into "the Apple way".

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

Consumers will likely not look at Amazon as the bad-guy here, some will for sure as this is a case of billionaires fighting over our pennies, but I am suspecting far more consumers or users like Maggie as well as myself and Buddy too, will look at Apple in a different light as we were actually won over by not just the design of the UI on the devices but we actually bought the Apple rhetoric that choosing Apple was always going to be the safe and easier option to the end user, Apple has our back sort of thing.

Now, suddenly the user sees this might not actually be the case. And from then on the user, even if they stay with the iOS platform, well have some degree of unease with their decision making future loyalty something they will re-evaluate when it comes time to update their devices.

Like others, I hope this settles not just to the total benefit of the user, as hey it was out money we spent, but also lets Apple realize they have moved outside the comfort zone of users who truly just love the Apple brand into a place were people expect consistency and appreciation for deciding to buy into "the Apple way".

All this talk about Amazon is pure speculation at this point in time... or did I miss the announcement that the kindle app has been pulled from the App Store?

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

All this talk about Amazon is pure speculation at this point in time... or did I miss the announcement that the kindle app has been pulled from the App Store?

as the Kindle for iOS does not allow for in-app purchases you tell us, you are the expert on Apple's policy. All Apple did was approve the app then turn around and draw a line in the sand about the whole thing. Apple did not state already approved apps would be exempt nor would updates for those existing approved apps not be subject to "..The New Cruelty"*

I think ya said you use an Apple device so you must be smart enough to figure it out from there. Oh, Heir Jobs is not around to tell you.

d'oh, that was snarky wasn't it? oops!! not sorry though just feeling silly! haha...

*reference to the movie LA Story, a movie not for the sarcasm impaired but really funny if you ever lived in LA

[RockdaMan]

Here is an editorial from Harry McCracken.

I’ve spent several hundred dollars on Kindle books over the past few years. Nowadays, I do about 80 percent of my reading of them on an iPhone and an iPad. An e-book I can’t read on Apple gizmos would be dramatically less valuable.

It’s possible that Apple has a tenable plan here–which would presumably involve charging Amazon and other e-book sellers a fee of a lot less than thirty percent of the book price. (At this week’s unveiling of News Corp.’s The Daily iPad newspaper, Apple Internet services honcho Eddy Cue made reference to an upcoming announcement involving content subscriptions; maybe single-copy sales will also be part of the news.)

Maybe Apple has even shared its plans with Amazon and other e-booksellers; maybe they even had a say in figuring it all out. Or maybe Amazon and others have a strategy for opting out of Apple’s new stipulation without leaving Apple devices behind–presumably something along the lines of the proposal floated by Slate’s Farhad Manjoo, who thinks that e-book sellers should build entirely Web-based readers. We just don’t know. And thanks to the opaque nature of Apple’s explanation of such things, it’s not clear when we will know.

http://technologizer.com/2011/02/05/...iphone-kindle/

[snipenekkid]

Rock:

Interesting detail, thanks. I do only smirk with haughty derision at the comment by Farhad Manjoo at the suggestion that all reader apps be web based...oh good grief, part of the point of reading is often to get away from everyone and everything where there is zero chance of any sort of online connection. And what about wifi only devices such as the Touch or iPad Wifi only? Sometimes I wonder where these quoted "experts" come from. But if one Manjoo's then it you are gonna have to clean it up yourself because I ain't gonna touch it. Ok no fair poking fun at someone's name. But such a quote almost requires it. hehe.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

And what about wifi only devices such as the Touch or iPad Wifi only?

I'm sure he's thinking of something Instapaper like. It downloads your stuff when you're in connected range...it's there when you're not.

I don't think that that is Amazons plan.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

I'm sure he's thinking of something Instapaper like. It downloads your stuff when you're in connected range...it's there when you're not.

I don't think that that is Amazons plan.

I don't think that was what he said. he is quoted as saying "entirely web-based reader" and that means nothing, no content is ever stored locally, period. His comment was to propose a work-around for the Apple policy issue by never letting the data, in this case the book/newspaper/music/movie do anything more than get cached on the device as any other web page. Then again there are the limitations of Safari though of course there are some other browser options.

What I took away from that blog article and the article where the quotes come from is that Apple has screwed-the-pooch this time. Everyone, including publishers are completely in the weeds even if their app has been previously approved. If you read that article I linked from the Euro publishers it discusses that there seems no rhyme nor reason as to if or how a publisher/app developer is or is not notified. And the notification can be formal or complete in passing and informal belying the significance of the matter. This is not how things are done, and especially not when looking at the money represented by ebooks and other content served up from these sources.

And as I and others here have pointed out, we users came or where planing to come to Apple to avoid the "a new day a different fire to put out" scenario that everyone tries to say is the bad part of other platforms, especially MS. Well, this time Apple has become it's own arsonist, potentially.

for now I am content to sit back and wait. I had already decided I wanted to see what the iPad 2 will bring to the table and what, if any Android or preferably Win7 devices offer this spring or summer. I had hoped to move to a solution by now and the iPad seemed a very reasonable solution for a year or so until other devices matured. But now I am not giving Apple, or any other company my cash. In fact I might have upped my requirement to a device using Gorilla Glass AND a Wacom digitizer which was in my original requirements list anyway but I was willing to wait when I found there is a Dragon NaturallySpeaking app for the iPad even if it is pretty crippled, it would work for my needs well enough for the short term of a year plus it runs on the Touch as well.

[WT Sharpe]

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[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

as the Kindle for iOS does not allow for in-app purchases you tell us, you are the expert on Apple's policy. All Apple did was approve the app then turn around and draw a line in the sand about the whole thing. Apple did not state already approved apps would be exempt nor would updates for those existing approved apps not be subject to "..The New Cruelty"*

I think ya said you use an Apple device so you must be smart enough to figure it out from there. Oh, Heir Jobs is not around to tell you.

d'oh, that was snarky wasn't it? oops!! not sorry though just feeling silly! haha...

Snarky? Yes. But that is to be expected.

Some people are attracted to drama... and if no drama is available, they'll manufacture some. The only thing that we can be certain of is that Apple pulled the Sony reader app from the App Store. There have been conflicting reports as to WHY it was pulled.

Kobo, Nook, Kindle, and the dozen of comic book apps remain in the app store. THAT is a fact.

Anti-Apple derangement syndrome is evident when Apple is getting slammed (not for what they actually did) but on the speculation on what they MIGHT do.

In the last 100 posts in this thread, Amazon or Kindle has been mentioned far, far more than the Sony reader...the app that was ACTUALLY affected.

[elcreative]

Actually, Apple didn't pull the app, it was not approved so never got on in the first place...

[CommonReader]

Given that Apple's success over the last couple of years is to a considerable extent down to hype and emotions it is quite ironic to see those who criticize Apple being called drama queens. When you whip up the hype you are in no position to complain when the hype turns against you. A "magical device", indeed.

[elcreative]

I think the criticism was for the knee jerk, "Apple are demons" comments, just like the "Microsoft Evil Empire" and other similar remarks... no value to reasoned discussion just reflex actions of true believers (or true haters)... no discussion worthwhile or possible as they "know" they're right and therefore anyone who disagrees "must" be wrong...

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Given that Apple's success over the last couple of years is to a considerable extent down to hype and emotions it is quite ironic to see those who criticize Apple being called drama queens. When you whip up the hype you are in no position to complain when the hype turns against you. A "magical device", indeed.