Comments for Should Apple Care That Facebook's iPhone App Developer Has Quit?

Should Apple Care That Facebook's iPhone App Developer Has Quit?

2009-11-13T20:13:31Z

News reverberated through the developer community that long-time and highly prominent community contributor Joe Hewitt has quit developing the iPhone Facebook application. While Joe said that Apple has the right to do what it wants, he does not agree with its policies and has chosen to move on. Joe posted this tweet in the afternoon of November 11th:

"Time for me to try something new. I've handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I'm onto a new project."

]]> This guest post was written by Elia Freedman.

The Problem

Apple's App Store is a mess for small and independent developers. Very few developers are making even a livable wage, and the approval process is a black box.

Let's start with making money. Pinch Media reports that the average iPhone application has netted (for the developer) a grand total of $8,500, and 80% of developers have made less than that. That's not per month - which would be a starting point for a two-person team - but rather total revenue earned.

And as reported a few thousand times, the approval process is a black box. For the most part, developers don't know whether their app will be approved or in what timeframe, making the entire experience a nail-biter.

Should Apple Care?

Well, of course, Apple should care. Apple should be inclusive of its community and encourage small developers to grow and make a living from developing for the iPhone. Apple rightly views the App Store as a competitive advantage and should continue striving to keep its developers in-house.

On the other hand, Apple is not responsible for marketing and selling for its developers. The App Store is a distribution medium, not a marketing and sales platform. Apple has a system in place for enabling customers to quickly and easily purchase and download software for their devices. And it has been a massive success, with over two billion downloads.

The difference, though, is that the apps that Apple needs in the App Store most - gaming and entertainment titles - are getting in. And they are being developed by some of the biggest brands in the world. After all, the iPhone and iPod Touch are, first and foremost, entertainment devices.

Note that these big brands do not face the same problems as the rest of the developer community. Many have contacts deep in Apple, are magically ushered through the review process in a few days and get great placement on Apple's virtual store shelves. Electronic Arts, for example, has no public rejection stories and currently has titles throughout the list of top grossing apps, suggesting that it is in the top 10% for App Store revenue generation.

And so, Joe Hewitt has quit the App Store. It's a great show of unity for small developers, but Apple has clearly linked successful applications to big brands, and those brands continue to clamor for iPhone presence.

Guest author: Elia Freedman is the CEO of Infinity Softworks, the leading provider of software calculators with over 15 million distributed. In its 13-year history, Infinity Softworks has developed applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows, Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Elia writes about tech, mobile and running a business on his blog, eliainsider.com and at Twitter as eliajf.

Comment from gianna on 2011-02-07

2011-02-07T09:31:16Z

Google's open approach will undoubtably end with inferior applications getting to Apple's market. Skilled developers who want to bring rich applications to this medium won't spend the time developing for the iPhone when there is no guarantee of approval.

Instead, they will develop for Android first, and then modify for the iPhone, if they even believe the market is worth the time.ecommerce developer ecommerce development

Comment from OpenMic on 2010-04-15

2010-04-15T22:20:20Z

This article's warped! So you're actually blaming Apple for developers not earning enough money? Even though Apple provide a fully managed checkout process and IDE tools to developers.

In the context of this whole issue, Joe claims he's going back to the web. Can I ask you this, do you honestly think that web apps make MORE money?? Most don't even have a set fee. Idiots.

Comment from Will on 2010-02-03

2010-02-03T09:31:10Z

Hopefully I can be of assistance to current and up and coming developers.

I specialise in the recruitment of iPhone developers and I am a great contact to have if you’re a developer. I have access to some of the best App development companies and I am passionate about what I do!

Drop me an Email: wharford@keypeople.co.uk

Connect with me on LinkedIn, http://uk.linkedin.com/in/wharford (I accept all requests)

Or call me 00441727 817641

Comment from Chris on 2010-02-02

2010-02-03T01:23:56Z

Cool article. No I don't think Apple should care that just one iphone developer quit. It is their company and their developers have to follow their rules, its that simple. May seem a little harsh but Apple has the ability to do that.

Comment from iPhone Application Development on 2010-01-07

2010-01-07T12:17:35Z

they might have found replacement but it doesn't assure them of iphone apps' success being sustained

Comment from Rocky on 2009-12-16

2009-12-16T19:32:39Z

Hey Guys i find one cooool website for Applecare.

www.cheapapplecare.com

A++++ seller...

Comment from Trevor on 2009-11-18

2009-11-18T21:14:19Z

Thats too bad, Apple's difficult approval process and arcane search methodology for apps is driving away even large corporate developers.

Oh well, on the bright side, you can now develop cross platfrom awesome completely native applications with only HTML, CSS and Javascript! Check it out at

http://www.appcelerator.com

Comment from Leifaberg1 on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T16:32:29Z

Apple should care. It is very important that the brand not get complacent with their iPhone and App Store Success. Google has so much going on right now and so much momentum that it is well on its way to supplement Apple as the de-facto, anti-microsoft. And while Apple has such a hardcore and loyal segment of the market, developer frustrations like this vs. Google's open approach will undoubtably end with inferior applications getting to Apple's market. Skilled developers who want to bring rich applications to this medium won't spend the time developing for the iPhone when there is no guarantee of approval. Instead, they will develop for Android first, and then modify for the iPhone, if they even believe the market is worth the time. The result will be better apps and games delivered to Android users sooner, increasing the value of these devises over the iPhone and dropping the iPhone's segment of the smartphone market share lower. It wouldn't be difficult for Apple to do a pre-approval based on concept and then drop the App on the back end if it fails to follow through on or significantly alters said concept.

Comment from Stephen on 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T08:32:04Z

Should make the process simple

Comment from abee on 2009-11-14

2009-11-14T18:45:19Z

i think they will have a replacement...

Comment from AdamC on 2009-11-14

2009-11-14T16:43:34Z

Joe Hewitt is no small fry - Om said he is one influential guy on the iPhone platform just because he happened to be on the platform early and wrote some stuff which I believed quickly became outdated when Apple released the SDK. To cut the story short this whiner, er, influential developer got no respect from Apple.

Comment from Shawn on 2009-11-14

2009-11-14T08:06:16Z

Of course Apple has every right to limit what they sell through the App Store, but the problem is the App Store is the only way to get software for your iPhone (unless you jailbreak it of course). I have no problem with a retailer - say, Walmart or Amazon - deciding what they want to sell and what they don't, but that's the point. As a buyer, if I can't find what I'm looking for at Walmart, then I easily shop at Amazon, Best Buy, etc. And as a developer (or artist, or whatever), if Walmart won't carry my product, I can try to sell it through Amazon or I can simply make it available via my own website or small business.

Apple is the ONLY way to buy and sell things for the iPhone, and that's the problem.

Comment from Dave on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T06:29:38Z

Hey Joe don't complain about the approval process.it insures that we get an app that's not going to steel our info .oh wait,just like facebook who is always stealing our personal info.what I mean is facebook apps that say your friend voted you bla bla bla when they never did.fb allows these apps to lie to you just to get you involved with the app that lies.so Joe f%^k you.you cry baby.apple souldnt care

Comment from segdeha.com on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T03:47:29Z

@Ross,

Sure, publishers can decide not to support the book, but an author can self-publish, e-publish, etc. The analogue here would be, I suppose, writing an Android, rather than iPhone app. The reason people put up with the approval process is that the AppStore is where the money is.

@PXLated,

I agree. Apple have every right to vet the apps coming into the store. Devs, on the other hand, if the process is too onerous, have the right to take their software somewhere else. I don't see Apple losing their market advantage until there are other viable players in the space. Hopefully a year or 2 from now, Apple will be forced to be more transparent with developers because there will be real competition.

Comment from PXLated on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T01:23:28Z

But segdeha, it is like any product development - Just because you invent/develop/manufacture something (no matter how long it takes you) doesn't mean anyone will choose to buy it, carry it in their store or catalog. Go try to get Walmart to carry your product and you'll probably wish all you had to deal with was an Apple approval process.

That isn't to say Apple doesn't need to streamline things but I can't recall any platform being deluged with 100K apps in such a timeframe.

What would be funny is if Apple hired a big temperamental whiner like Joe and put them in charge of approval - my bet it would be a massive, massive fail. But it would shut him up :-)

Comment from Ross on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T01:10:24Z

Hi segdeha, I see your point.

I still feel there is some credence to Apple's position. Maybe the solution would be to submit a prototype of an app to get preliminary approval.

I don't believe all authors write just a few chapters before looking for a publisher. I was just googling and it is unclear, seems they often submit a few 'sample' chapters from the book - but the book may already be complete.

The Apple rejection rate, from what I've heard, is a fraction of a percent, it's just that they become very vocal. Some of the rejections are truly *mistakes* by Apple,
it is true. Sometimes if a developer gets vocal Apple has relented. I think this recent political cartoon app should have been ACCEPTED. Nancy Pelosi must be in Apple's home district. ;-)

But there are so many ways that large corporations control things we could also be complaining about. Going back to publishing, if I write a book with an unpopular or questionable theme, maybe nobody will publish it. I can't force someone, and it could feel like censorship and in a sense it is. Or I can't just demand that a television station give me access to its airwaves, so I can say my opinion. I guess my point is that "censorship" is a part of our lives in many ways.

If people get annoyed enough they will jump ship for the Android platform, right?
Then Apple will re-examine. They've been very open and supportive of open source in general in the past.

Comment from OhhJohnny on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T00:49:17Z

Facebook = one of the biggest walled gardens on the web. Hewitt should put his paycheck where his mouth is or STFU.

Comment from segdeha.com on 2009-11-13

2009-11-14T00:22:39Z

Ross, the comparison is flawed because in the case of publishers, an author will send in a proposal, with maybe a couple of sample chapters, then the publisher either agrees to handle the book or not. Likewise with retailers, they decide what they want and place an order for the goods. In the case of the AppStore, developers spend weeks or months building software with no knowledge of whether the app will make it in the store at all. Even if they follow the guidelines in the official SDK, they may still be rejected. That is why, I think, folks are up in arms.

Thanks for linking to the Mac News article, though. In it Hewitt is quoted as saying "My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple's policies." That's the little bit of journalism that this article could have used to provide some much needed context to the issue.

Comment from Ross on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T23:58:17Z

There is IMHO an excellent summary of why we need an App Store and that the vetting that Apple does is natural and good - no different than other common market scenarios: publishers choosing books, retailers and grocers choosing what they will stock.

Great:

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Apples-House-Rules-Wont-Be-the-Death-of-App-Development-68637.html

Comment from Ken Berger on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T22:14:52Z

There is no question that Apple can improve their application approval process, but suggesting that there should not be a process is going in the wrong direction.

Just wait until there is enough Android phones to see the havoc that will be created by crashing phone, and security problems due to rouge applications. Just look at the problems surfacing with jail-broken iPhones.

Apple's success is based on equal parts innovation, usability / UI, consistency and integration, reliability. Fully open phones will not be able to match most of these - no matter how many developers work on it. Just look at Linux - it is powerful and advances faster than any other operating system due to it's open source development. But it has no consumer acceptance (beyond embedded applications) because it is not consistent, the UI is not great and reliability requires knowledge beyond that of a typical end user.

Android is already problematic as there are three versions out there and no easy way for end users to upgrade. IPhone suers get upgrades via itunes with out the need for the user to even understand what it is.

Facebook's popularity on the iPhone is about people loving facebook - the app is and has been one of the worst in terms of UI and reliability of any I have used.

Rather than asking if Apple should be worried - we should be asking when Facebook will be building a more powerful team to do a better iPhone app!

Comment from Steven on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T22:10:57Z

Truth is MOST (as in 99%+) developers (large, giant, small or tiny) do NOT have rejection stories.

Sadly, this makes your whole post mostly whine whine whine. Are there aspects to the approval process that need better transparency? Heck yes and Apple needs to continue to work on things. Is it fundamentally broken? Nope.

The fact that 20% of developers are making > $8,500/year indicates there is a success story. Do you think that ALL developers are doing this full time? The fact is, most are doing it very part time and are making extra spending change.

Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Comment from Bastien on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T21:22:56Z

I think that Apple should care. It seems that more developers are in the same boat, or on the same ship as Joe, and leaving the platform. Whether its reported more because of Joe's leaving, I am not sure, but it is becoming news.

As it stands, the App Store approval process is broken. If the issue is that Apple badly underestimated the resources needed to properly manage the process, its one thing. That can be corrected by thowing bodies at it and scaling up to remove the backlog and other logjams. If the issue is one of control, then Apple really needs to re-evaluate the who process before all those developers decide that Andriod is the platform to develop for and Apple starts to take real hit because the number of USEFUL apps isn't growing anymore.

I propose that Apple move to a Trusted App model whereby they take more of a leadership role in allowing properly secure (as in it doesn't steal your data and pass it off somewhere) apps in. This would set Apple up to vet far fewer, higher quality apps, thereby reducing the logjam at the approval process and allow users to get Apps from other stores.

Yes, this is outside the norm for how Apple does business with its usual tight controls, but it may be the solution to ensure that it remains the destination of choice for high quality apps. In the short term, this may result in some loss of Apple's App Store revenue, but in the end, this may be a better source of revenue, result in a cleaner app store (fewer 'fart' apps) with more relevance to the users.

This solution would also make it more attractive to business users whose it teams could then offer business apps without the need to have them approved.

Comment from Kiran on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T20:38:10Z

I agree with you that Apple should care. However, Joe quit because he does not want a review process. He did not quit because bigger brands are getting easier review process or making more money or that many smaller shops are not making money. So in an ideal world, Apple should not care what apps get in and how much they make.

Comment from segdeha.com on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T20:34:48Z

I just read through Joe's tweets and I'm left to wonder if this whole thing is being overblown. His last blog post is from nearly 3 months ago and there he says he "...will not stop developing for Apple's platforms or using Apple's products as long as they continue to produce the best stuff on the market."

Might it just be the case that Joe wants/needs a new challenge and/or Facebook needs/wants his talents on another project and has the internal resources to hand off the iPhone app to another engineer? Maybe I'm missing something, but why are people making this out to be about Hewitt standing up for indie developers?

Comment from kmk on 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T20:34:21Z

become he is no rocket scientist. There are thousands of coders like him. He wrote facebook app so what? It is not a rocket science!