The Sad Truth About The Apple App Store Drama…

Everyone is upset. Well, that is if everyone is about 1% of iPhone/iPod Touch users. In January Apple was claiming they had already sold 4 million iPhones, not to mention millions of iPod Touches I am sure. So let’s say conservatively that there are 5 million devices in the wild. and we’ll take off a cool million for ones that aren’t on the latest firmware.

So we have 5 million devices. (And TechCrunch says more than 12 million, but we are playing with this tiny number for dramatic effect) The app store has 3990 applications on it currently. And lets say just to further dramatize this scenario, that every application had a unique developer, so we have 4,000,000 users, and 3,990 of those are developers. So I was far off, it looks like less than 1% of the iPhone users are developers.

Now lets talk a second about captive market. If you are a developer and you want to make some money, you write your iPhone application, follow their rules, and collect your money. It’s a win/win scenario until you get mad at their policies and protest.

The real problem is, you have no leverage. If you stop writing applications for iPhone, someone else will pop up in your place, Apple loses nothing, and you lose your source of revenue.

Whining to get the SDK agreement changed, petitioning to get apps approved that were rejected. These are about as futile as screaming at the top of your lungs, “There is a pothole in my driveway!”  in a city larger than Chicago and expecting the mayor to hear you.

Let’s face it. This scenario exists all over the place. Do you want to write games for Xbox 360 or PS3? You have to play by their rules, period. Do you want to build an addition onto your house? Same deal.

It’s a scary and sucky precedent to be sure, but I look at these articles the same way I look at Rasheed Wallace when he gets his pouty face on when he gets a call he doesn’t like. I have been watching the NBA for as long as I can remember and I have never seen them change a call. Not once.

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