Apple’s Phil Schiller defends iPhone App Store approval process

“In his first extensive interview on the subject, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing, outlines the many reasons Apple keeps close tabs on which applications can be downloaded onto the iPhone and iPod Touch. He also outlined ways the company is trying to become more flexible in its approval process,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek. “‘We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust,’ he says. ‘You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.'”

Hesseldahl reports, “The number of applications available at the App Store is now north of 100,000, and about 10,000 are submitted each week. As the volume rises, so does the number of potential problems. Schiller compares Apple’s role to that of a retailer determining which products line store shelves.”

“The iPhone has been on the market only 28 months. Users take them everywhere and are quickly inserting them into daily life in ways the personal computer never could have fit. Malware on smartphones could do significantly more damage than malware on a PC,” Hesseldahl writes. “Imagine a nasty application that records every word you speak—both on and off the phone—without your knowledge, and then e-mails the audio to a stranger. Or picture one that surreptitiously tracks your movements and sends them to a stalker.”

Hesseldahl writes, “There may come a time when Apple finds it no longer needs to play such a comprehensive a role as app approver. Apple has shown a willingness to let its app approval process evolve. But today, with smartphones permeating our lives and going everywhere we go, it makes a good deal of sense to have someone keeping a close eye on what those apps do. At least for now.

Full article here.

In a related article today, AppleInsider’s Katie Marsal reports on a malicious worm that attacks and steals data from jailbroken iPhones. Read the full article here.