Remember What Steve Said About the App Store?
We’ve been screaming and whining about the iPhone App Store for nigh on a year now and we seem to have avoided talking about one of the most obvious sources of information about the Store: Steve himself.
Harry “Long Tail” McCracken remembers what Steve said way back in the old days about the App Store.
Jobs said that Apple wouldn’t distribute porn or malicious apps or privacy-invading apps, and said that Apple’s interests and those of third-party developers were the same. The slide also mentioned “Bandwidth hogs,” which apparently meant stuff like SlingPlayer, and “Unforseen,” which I assumed at the time referred to other applications that put iPhone owners at risk in one way or another. What he didn’t do is say that Apple would reject software that competed with Apple or AT&T offerings.
This “unforeseen” section is what really bugs everyone. Google Voice, for example, could feasibly recreate some basic iPhone functionality and also act as a resource hog.