Are there not other phones available?
It's one thing for Apple to set guidelines on what it's going to allow in the store. It's another thing entirely for it to not set guidelines, but instead force developers to figure out for themselves what is allowed based on which apps have already been accepted. Now Apple is changing the rules on the fly, so even apps that historically have been acceptable may not be allowed in.
If Apple wanted to keep these promotional spammy apps out, it should have started blocking them from the start, before people started building businesses around them.
Now I'm wondering how long it will be before Apple starts removing the many thousands of book applications on the App Store, now that it has its own official Books app.
@CoreDumpling: I agree that consistency would be better, but which real-world store would you say is consistent with what they'll have? And which will tell you what their qualifications are for allowing products in?
I'll concede your point that real-world stores can be just as difficult to work with, if not even more so, but this doesn't change the fact that having the App Store as the sole arbiter of what's allowed is introducing artificial barriers to restrict consumer choice. Even WalMart has to deal with competition from other distributors.
They're artificial barriers, certainly. And I'd love an open App Store, though I understand their reasons for keeping it locked down. The worst barrier they have right now, IMO, is the single-carrier barrier, which I really think is flat-out wrong. But the USA is rather backwards when it comes to cell phones.
As to the WalMart / other contrived analogy, which I admit my comment was rather lacking in content, lets try another comparison. The DS only plays DS games (especially with the DSi now, which loses the GBA slot). However, not only is that the same restriction, it's even worse because getting permission to sell your game is an absolute nightmare if you're not big, and the development tools are far more expensive.
To make the comparison stronger, and the App Store's position worse, the DS has sold three times as many units than the iPhone, though probably not as many cartridges as apps. But that's physical vs digital distribution for ya. How often do you hear about the DS and its far tighter distribution chain, as opposed to the iPhone? Granted, the App Store has been changing lately, but the criticism hasn't abated since day 1.
For WalMart in particular, I'd say it's closer to buying a DVD player from WalMart, and having it only play DVDs sold at WalMart. It'd certainly suck for people trying to sell things, but they carry 99.9% of what people buy anyway, so most of the buyers won't mind (and it may be worth avoiding the huge amounts of porn that might appear there otherwise). And there are other options, like Android phones, Blackberry / PalmOS based phones, etc, which match other retail options.
You give me the "other country" and I'll move there tomorrow. Even if it's cold there.
Or do we have to wait for the army of clones first?