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.
