“It’s under NDA but evidently Apple rejected Microsoft Office for the Mac because it competes with Apple’s iWork. Also, Firefox was rejected because it could confuse users about which to browser to use,” Inner Daemon writes.
“Other candidates on the reject list include NetNewsWire, RealPlayer, and Lightroom,” Inner Daemon writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cupertino, we have a problem.
MacDailyNews Note: For any Windows-only users who may have stumbled here via Google News or via some other conduit: Inner Daemon is making a satirical statement on Apple’s recent App Store for iPhone and iPod touch app rejections based on “duplicating iTunes functionality.” Apple is not “rejecting Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.” If anything, Apple goes out of their way to promote Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. For example: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Starting at just $149.95 with free shipping from Apple Store.
Grab your Verizon phone and complain that you want to load your own apps for texting or e-mail. Oh yeah, if it’s not a Palm you can’t.
Verizon controls their products and user experience. Not that I like their menus and choices.
@Tommy boy, I agree. Criticism might help Apple to change their ways. I don’t agree with Apple on restricting apps that might compete with their own, as they did with that mail app the other day. However, I am in favor of Apple reviewing the apps and blocking those that they don’t think should be sold by them. So, I agree with the policy, but I don’t agree with their decision on some apps.
I think there’s one thing people seem to be missing. Apple is making these decision AFTER a developer invests time and resources into it. That is not right. And since the App Store is the ONLY way to distribute your software, you’re SOL. That’s just not right.
Whew! I too fell for this at first.
Peace.
The Mac is different then the iPhone.
Apple is currently with the iPhone acting as a very protective new Parent, If their is software that could effect the phone’s image or cause a roue with any of the carrier partners Apple is choosing to error on the side of caution. The Podcaster software, NetShare and the software of poor or questionable taste are all examples of Apple being protective of the new platforms image and attempting to be conservative and helping the customers stay within the rules of their contracts with the various carriers. While yes, it means so Apps may not be approved because they potentially would cause a customers in country x to be in violation of their contract, while it would not customers in countries a, b, c, h, f, y, and z Apple is going the safe route and just rejecting the application. While this may ruffle feathers of some developers, punters and gawkers. You must keep in mind that the App Store on the iPhone is, in most cases, the first time these carriers have not totally controlled the software that the network users were allowed to install or even have on their phones. Apple broke and flushed the model that the cell carriers had been holding on too, 100% control of what the cell phone manufacture could put on the phone, 100% control of what the user could put and run on the phone and use to communicate with. The iPhone has caused a major shift for manufactures, for customers and for carriers, the whole industry is now opening up to whole new shift were the customer has much more freedom. As the carriers relax their restrictions and Apple is not longer the protective new parent the current very tight restrictions Apple has on software such the rejections of Netshare and Podcaster.
As for Apple’s NDA. Developers have wanted better answers from Apple when their Apps are rejected. All I can say is keep you trap shut and Apple will answer your question. Squawk and Squeal and you’ll only be greeted with silence from Apple.
Be professional, upfront, and honor all your contracts and agreements with Apple and you can get good full and up front information. Make a news or blog entry out of it and you’ll be lucky to get any reply.
wow, that is a great opening for lawyers
The online so-called news/blogs scene is making the National Enquire looks more and more legit and trust-worthy.
My, there certainly are a lot of parody-challenged people out there…
For the record, parody opinion pieces don’t have to be humorous, but it does help sometimes.
I wish we didn’t link to the onion.
stupid
man
stupid
Apple, Inc.’s iPhone and App Store are closed systems, by design. That is their prerogative. What more is there to say?
@Jimbo von Winskinheimer:
Take a valium, dude, before you blow a gasket!
Damn headline nearly gave me a heart attack
@Jimbo von Winskinheimer: I am in 100% agreement with your last post. Glad to see the Kool-Aid™ is wearing off.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29130
People… get out of defense mode and take it for whatever enjoyment you can find. A friend sent me the link above many years ago and I went off the deep end not realizing it was a joke. Since then I have learned to take a moment and try to enjoy the humor in this world…. it is all around us too.
Stop trying to be “Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog” and poop on everything.
The Dude abides.
“they have to be so in control of everything on their machine its ridiculous… how about letting the consumer make a decision on what they want to use… Apple inc… is becoming a monopoly 100x worse than windows ever was”
Apple is the success it is today BECAUSE it controls these things! It’s this control over the “whole widget” that makes Apple products so outstanding. If you “let consumers make a decision on what they want to use,” you get….the Hell that is known as Windows!
Heaven forbid the day Apple goes down that path!!!!!
I see it’s still easier to accuse people of drinking Kool-Aid than debate the actual issues at hand.
I second the “Mac != iPhone” post above. Where Microsoft and Google are lazily using pretty much the exact same approach to their phone OS as they would for a desktop OS, Apple is actually attempting to rethink a number of those foundational assumptions with the iPhone. They’re changing their approach to fit the product, rather than the other way around.
I’m not 100% comfortable with everything they’ve been doing in their efforts to pursue their new paradigm, but everyone needs to calm down and realize that we’re still in the infancy stages of this thing here. Things will no doubt change over time. But nobody today wants to have any patience.
Apple is still feeling their way through the new realities needed for their iPhone platform, and it’s annoying to continually read small-minded critics snipping at Apple for actually trying something different and more secure than what we’ve come to know and accept on the desktop.
The marketplace is large enough for everyone. Let Apple do their thing with the iPhone, and let Google do their thing with Android. We’ll find out what works best as we go forward.
Apple is attempting to think different with the iPhone. Clearly, not everybody gets that.
every company makes mistakes
To everyone who says that it’s Apple’s game, and they’re within their rights to set the rules however they want it to be played:
You’re right. It’s also my right to disagree.
He’s not really comparing app(le)s with app(le)s. OS X iPhone has always been a more locked down, tightly controlled experience compared to OS X Tiger/Leopard.
Oh, and Apple is within its rights to do whatever the hell it wants, and live or die by those decisions. Somehow I don’t think this will impact the iPhone’s success.
That’s it Apple, I want my records back. I’ll leave the key under the mat…
Hey, you guys here at MDN.com – you are propagating the rumormill by your choice of headline here, where lots of folks simply won’t read the story, get the satire, but just get out there and repeat the rumor over and over again. Why stoke the fire of misinformation? Sure, satire is satire, but even when reading satire many more folks than most of us realize just don’t get that they’re reading satire.
Put the disclaimer <~satire ‘warning’~> right there in the headline, so the dummies can ‘get it.’
OK, I’m confused.
“Maybe they will let these apps through later. Who knows. If you don’t like it, go buy a Blackberry or a Google phone.”
It’s not driving away end users that’s the problem, it’s driving away developers that is. Its a BIG problem that you only get to know if you can sell your application after you develop it and submit it to Apple.
And lets face it, nothing they’re doing with the app store is actually filtering out bad or unstable apps. it’s just a method to exert control and stop competition.
What you’re saying (Quite rightly) if You don’t like the risk that you may sink millions (yes, apps more sophisticated than games to tip calcualtors will cost that to build). into iPhone development then get told your app breaks some secret Apple rule and you can’t ship it, then go to a platform where that risk does not exist.
It’s a pity. It’s Mac vs Windows all over again with Apple coming up with a good platform then thinking of ways to drive people away from it.
“You must keep in mind that the App Store on the iPhone is, in most cases, the first time these carriers have not totally controlled the software that the network users were allowed to install or even have on their phones”
Not so. That may be true for feature phones but not smart phones. Windows Mobile and blackberry have allowed people to install arbitrary apps for years.
“Somehow I don’t think this will impact the iPhone’s success.”
If you never want more than tip calculators on your phone, that’s probably right. Apple will own the most successful proprietary locked down application starved platform in the phone world (Just like the Pre Intel Mac world). And 5 years from now, with Apple having created consumer interest in smartphones and woken Microsoft, Google and RIM up and forced them to improve thier products, Apple will own 3% of the worldwide smartphone market. There will be a winner in this market, but with current policies, it won’t be Apple.