This is outrageous.
That's it, I am going to refrain from purchasing any and all Apple products from here on, am going to encourage others to do the same, and will also refrain from recommending their products to anyone.
That's it, I am going to refrain from purchasing any and all Apple products from here on, am going to encourage others to do the same, and will also refrain from recommending their products to anyone.
If you develop for a controlled platform which has an approval process, you have risks. End of story. You don't call any shots, the owner of the platform - Apple - does.
As an Apple consumer, I just don't care, and I'm sure the vast majority are the same. When Apple starts degrading the users experience, people will care.
It certainly is getting very boring to read. Essentially 2 stories have been posted umpteen times now.
1). Apple uses NDAs.
2). Apple rejects some apps from the store.
When a company is trying to sell a device as an "experience", it finds other large companies to partner with, and makes them all sign NDAs. The partner companies make legal agreements ahead of time so that both parties know what will be developed/accepted. Due to the cost and limited number of partners, only a few applications are made for the device, but they are high quality. This is the model used by game consoles and some mobile devices.
On the other hand, when a company tries to market a device as a "platform", it courts as many developers as it can, from big companies to hobbyists. Usually, the development tools and documentation are free. There are no NDAs to sign, no vetting process; developers create with the assurance that end-users will have access to their product, regardless of how crappy it is. This is the model used by personal computers and some mobile devices.
What is unusual is that Apple is pursuing neither strategy. They want developers to work without prior approval, but they also want to arbitrarily block distribution. They want developers to work on their own, but they also want to keep them from talking to each other.
This approach is unexpected from a device manufacturer. It was not unreasonable of the book authors to expect that Apple would have dropped the NDA by now, as it serves no purpose other than as a barrier of entry to development.
I think what's changing is that apple has always been as evil as microsoft. Only with much better PR. They are slipping now because there are new demands for openness which they fail to handle.
Microsoft has proven for twenty years that it is incapable of creating a good user experience.
I believe in talking with my wallet when it comes to companies.
Buying responsibly is one of the things we can all do.
For those reasons, I prefer a Debian-based OS. I keep reading OpenSolaris has a nice package manager that can do rollbacks and may consider it in the future. As for OSX, it's not for me.
Violating the spirit? They're acting in their own, and their customers best interests - no news here.
There are 2 news stories - 1. They use NDAs, 2. They reject some apps. This is really just being blown out of all proportion.
Hate fest? Personally, I have simply expressed the decision I have made as a consumer in reaction to actions I find offensive by a company.
I am also acting in my own best interests, as I have no interest in purchasing products from a company that engages in the sort of tactics we have been seeing lately.
Please do elaborate on how their tactics are safeguarding the best interests of their customers, I truly fail to see how.
Now, as far as this being blown out of proportion, well, going by that standard, hey, what's an EULA by MSFT? They are just "acting in their own, and their customers best interests", right?
NDA != License to Engage in Abusive Conduct
I can´t see how the NDA helps their customers. While this Apple-hate thing has been blown out of proportion, the NDA thing is more than a little bit stupid.
I suppose you could argue that using an NDA might put off developers which would mean a lack of apps for the store, but customers don't care about what apps may have been rejected, they care about the apps they can use.
Let's take a step back and speak more clearly: what Apple is doing is harmful to its developer ecosystem. Not evil, and maybe not stupid (time will tell).