Atwood on Apple

Jeff Atwood: “But as a software developer, I am deeply ambivalent about an Apple dominated future. Apple isn’t shy about cultivating the experience around their new iOS products and the App Store. There are unusually strict, often mysterious rules around what software developers can and cannot do — at least if they want entry into the App Store. And once you’re in, the rules can and will change at any time. Apple has cracked down several times already:”

Jeff, it’s ok to feel this way. You have other vendors to choose from. Android and Windows Phone 7 to name a couple of great ones.

I’m an iOS developer, not a popular one like Marco Arment, but an iOS developer all the same. I’m ok with giving Apple a 30% cut of my revenues. It’s a part of doing business. I benefit from their infrastructure. They’ve given me store space, server space, they’ve provided a way to install applications and manage upgrades, and they collect money for me so I don’t have to deal with credit card companies and the like. It’s not such a bad deal.

Now, I’m not disparaging Jeff for his opinion on the matter. It’s like a lot of things in life. We have different opinions. He just can’t live with the idea, and that’s perfectly fine. Jeff has contributed a lot to computing and computer science and I look forward to reading his insightful articles for a long time to come. I just may not agree with him. (Psssst, that’s ok.)