That application is one of the dumbest ways I can think of to spend programming time. Pull my finger? How about if that developer pulls his head out of his ass? I'm sure I'll get modded down for this. Whatever.
I am by no means an Apple zealot. In fact, I think the iPhone is pretty lousy. But why is it that so many people feel like they have a right to have their application sold in the iPhone App Store? Store owners do get to pick and choose what they're going to sell. You can't just come up with whatever lame product, show up at Best Buy or Amazon headquarters and demand that they start selling it in their stores. What in the world makes this guy or anyone else think the App Store is somehow an exception?
They weren't jerks about it either. They tactfully told this guy that his app was worthless and explained how he could distribute it to friends and family. He's lucky an application called "Pull My Finger" was even reviewed in the first place.
If people are unhappy with App Store policies then maybe the conditions are right for a competitor to come along and open a store. Of course, there's the whole issue of lock-in, but that's a whole different topic. The last thing we should be doing is feeling some sense of entitlement. It's Apple's store and they can choose what products to carry. As consumers we can choose whether or not to buy their products.
"But why is it that so many people feel like they have a right to have their application sold in the iPhone App Store? Store owners do get to pick and choose what they're going to sell. You can't just come up with whatever lame product, show up at Best Buy or Amazon headquarters and demand that they start selling it in their stores. What in the world makes this guy or anyone else think the App Store is somehow an exception?"
Well, the problem is that Apple has made so that theirs is the only store in the world. If your store doesn't want to stock my book, it's not a problem, I can always go to the bookstore across the street and cut a deal with them. But if I write an app for the iPhone, the only place that I can sell it is the App Store.
That being the case, developers are going to see Apple being fickle about what apps are accepted/rejected, and they are going to start asking themselves is it worth the risk to spend 6 months developing an app just to discover that it can never even be put on the market.
Apple risks losing developers if they continue with this, and that doesn't help their cause.
I am by no means an Apple zealot. In fact, I think the iPhone is pretty lousy. But why is it that so many people feel like they have a right to have their application sold in the iPhone App Store? Store owners do get to pick and choose what they're going to sell. You can't just come up with whatever lame product, show up at Best Buy or Amazon headquarters and demand that they start selling it in their stores. What in the world makes this guy or anyone else think the App Store is somehow an exception?
They weren't jerks about it either. They tactfully told this guy that his app was worthless and explained how he could distribute it to friends and family. He's lucky an application called "Pull My Finger" was even reviewed in the first place.
If people are unhappy with App Store policies then maybe the conditions are right for a competitor to come along and open a store. Of course, there's the whole issue of lock-in, but that's a whole different topic. The last thing we should be doing is feeling some sense of entitlement. It's Apple's store and they can choose what products to carry. As consumers we can choose whether or not to buy their products.