Apple Creating All the Apps
Pogue interviewed Scott Forstall and got this story, about just how far Steve Jobs thought Apple could go to expand the iPhone’s software library while not opening it to third-party developers:
“I want you to make a list of every app any customer would ever want to use,” he told Forstall. “And then the two of us will prioritize that list. And then I’m going to write you a blank check, and you are going to build the largest development team in the history of the world, to build as many apps as you can as quickly as possible.”
Scott Forstall both arranged for the covert development of app, sandbox and profile infrastructure, as well as talked Steve off the idea of killing jailbreaking and letting it be as long as it was just a fun community experiment.
Indeed, it was Steve catching wind on the latest app developments that ultimately made him change his mind on officially supporting app development, at which point Scott could unveil his skunkworks and presumably shave months off the effort.
[…]
Apple has had a bipolar attitude towards developers for at least the last 40 years, never quite deciding whether we are indispensable or insipid.
[…]
Apple is at its best when the openness of the Woz strain is coupled with the determination and focus of the Jobs strain.
Previously:
- A Letter to John Ternus
- Small Ways the App Store Could Be Improved for Developers
- Apple: The First 50 Years (Forthcoming)
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Continuing to show that Scott Forstall is one of the most important people in the history of Apple, but gets left off lists made by websites who want to stay on Apple's good side.
A kink in Steve's armor.
That idea was done without realizing just how influential phones would become.
Imagine s phone without your local banks app, commuter card, eID, etc.
@Someone Apple probably wouldn’t be here today if not for Carbon.
@Kristoffer And yet even now Apple is at the “Yahoo: we’ll hand-build a directory of the entire Web” stage.
It really is interesting. Not that many years ago I was considering dumping Apple/macOS because of the sorry state of the Mac hardware but didn’t because I loved the software. These days I’m considering dumping Apple because of the state of the software and haven’t yet because of the state of the hardware.
How Apple treats apps/developers is definitely part of it. I would really like to see them offer an option to run iPadOS on Mac laptops and stop trying to infantilize macOS.
Apple never embraced letting developers /drive/ the platform.
Apple throttles the rate of innovation through App Store policy + App Sandboxing (named because it keeps developers in one) + Security Theatre + Gimped iOS + Annual Dev Fees.
Apple gains:
- Visibility into your market and business (hits + payment history)
- Early looks at implementation (notarization, app review)
- Veto power over your business (app review, app store policy changes)
- A tollbooth they stretch to encompass any transaction within an app
For the first 2 items alone, Apple should be paying us 30% and signing 44 page TOSes and NDAs.
Apple's App Store prison turns 18 soon. Ironically, it was better in the early years because it highlighted unique and high quality efforts. Now the Crap Store primarily highlights Corporate shovelware subscription trash like Disney Plus, Netflix, Max, Tinder, etc. Trash apps are abundant and the gems are buried under ads and scammer knock offs.
Yahoo's hand-built directory was decent if you were new to the web. The Crap Store became a digital flea market.
Steve Jobs—best Communist asset we never had! Only a true believer could seriously think a completely planned economy in apps could work. Shame!
(Although, it does explain the strange fondness Apple has for China. You can have any app distribution method you want, as long as it's Apple's exclusive App Store.)
Interesting piece of Apple history. Scott Forstall‘s ignominious ouster from Apple now seems even more worse and petty.
Apple is really playing with fire when it comes to developer relations. For a company that has historically been forward looking in abandoning old paradigms for new ones, the refusal to update outmoded App Store features and polices is a very bizarre form of seppuku. All it does is ensure that developers will be highly guarded about making apps for Apple’s next platform.
The Vision Pro is not much of a market for app developers to target right now and hence has very few apps but I have a feeling that even if it develops into a mass market product, there will be very few apps made for it. Not only will it be cost prohibitive to make apps for it but Apple burning bridges with developers is bound to create splash back, especially if the value proposition of app development is murky.
