Paul's Mistake (Be Strong, Not Whiny)

Paul Graham recently commented on the state of Apple's AppStore and their treatment of developers. The comment seemed uncharacteristic of him, dedicating a lot of time to chastising Apple for their actions and claiming that this will substantially tarnish Apple's reputation. I respect Paul, but feel that his tone is wrong. Only time will judge whether Apple's treatment of developers will keep them from being successful. Instead of complaining, we should be analyzing how Apple has been successful and attempt to reproduce that on our own. Its the longer, harder path, but it will make all the difference.

(continuing with the previously titled "Developers: You Are Whats Wrong With the iPhone AppStore")

You pounded your fists because Apple didn't have a "real" SDK, so Apple created one. Then you pounded your fists because the approval process is too slow, so Apple hired a bunch of noobs. Now you're pounding your fists because the newbies aren't consistent in their execution.

Stop. Stop making iPhone apps. Stop complaining about Apple. Stop using their phone. Stop.

I am a long time Mac user, and I will tell you that nobody cares about your app, least of all Apple. I didn't buy the iPhone because of you, I bought it because of Apple. Apple put a bunch of cool things on it, and they all work (mostly) great. Most AppStore apps sell for a dollar, because thats about all they're worth. (BTW: please disprove this by creating something valuable.)

Since Apple made a great phone, they have become popular. But Apple isn't good at popular. Popular people have to bend to the will of others to stay popular, and that just isn't Jobs, and it isn't me either. Apple wants to be the best, and you have to be a little elitist to do that. You have to somewhat ignore what everyone wants and concentrate on what is best. Personally, I'm okay with this, and so are most of the people who bought an iPhone.

When Apple releases a tablet, will your iPhone app work on that? Of course not. What about Google's Droid? Not there either. Your apps will be rewritten (and re-tested) on every platform there is. The reason that we were all making web apps before the iPhone was that web apps actually work everywhere. JavaScript+HTML is the data interchange format for executable code (delivering what Java was supposed to). Don't like Apple's phone? Get a new one, your email, photos and web applications will continue to work there. Man that sounds nice, doesn't it.

If Apple is pissing off developers, I personally think this is great. Instead of building yet another iPhone app that Apple has to test and only your friends will ever use, you'll think about building your own hardware, or an app for another phone, or a web app that will be usable on any device for decades. Better yet, build a WebAppStore that works exactly like the AppStore, but for web applications.

You can pound your fists all you want, but only a couple of your peers are even listening.

[Discuss at Hacker News]