When Apple opened its famed iPhone to third-party software developers months ago, a number of Minnesota-based authors jumped at the chance to create applications for the hot-selling touch-screen handset.
Dealing with Apple is a mixed blessing, those publishers are discovering.
The California company exerts tight control over what apps can be installed on the iPhone and how that software is made available. It is sometimes secretive about the process, too. This has caused frustration as developers strain to discern what will or won't pass muster with the famously circumspect firm.
If Apple rejects an app, the author has to make changes based on often-cryptic information and with no guarantee the software will ever make the grade.
Take the Whoopie Cushion.
Minnesota-based DoApp announced this novelty application with fanfare in early July, bragging in a press release that "you can now have your iPhone pull the classic prank ... one that will make you and your friends roll with laughter."
Only one problem: The Whoopie Cushion software never showed up on the App Store, the Apple online storefront that is the only official site where iPhone apps can be sold and loaded onto phones.
DoApp had uploaded the software to the App Store, only to wait for weeks with nary a peep from Apple on why the app never became available for download.
In late August, Apple finally told DoApp via e-mail that its app "does not comply with Community Standards. When selling in the world market, community standards need to be taken into consideration, (and) bodily noises are not universally acceptable behavior."
DoApp marketing director Graeme Thickins wrote in an earlier DoApp blog post that "there is no rhyme or reason to how Apple decides to put apps on the App Store — meaning which ones, or in what order, or in what categories. And it's none of your business, thank you very much, since they're the most secretive company known to mankind!"
Apple has drawn ire from developers around the world for its App Store practices. It has pulled programs from the App Store without explanation after they were initially made available for download. It has rejected others because they purportedly mirror features in its own software, according to news reports.
In one highly publicized case, an iPhone program for streaming or directly downloading podcasts to the iPhone was denied App Store access, reportedly because it "duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes" —never mind that Apple's iTunes Store doesn't provide direct podcast downloads to iPhones, only via computers.
The author said on his blog last week that he asked Apple what changes to his Podcaster app were needed, but got no answer.
Apple declined to be interviewed for this story.
Such difficulties are all the more frustrating for developers because of how successful the App Store has become. Apple last week announced downloads had exceeded 100 million since the storefront's launch July 11. The App Store now offers more than 3,000 apps.
More than 600 of these are available at no cost, with developers hoping to establish a relationship with consumers who will eventually be willing to spend some money for future apps. The rest of the inventory at the App Store typically runs from $1 to $10. Many such apps also work on Apple's iPod Touch, a touch-screen device similar to an iPhone but without mobile-phone capabilities.
In a news release, Apple trotted out a quartet of iPhone developers who crowed about the ease with which software can be created and deployed and boasted about the App Store's revenue-generating potential.
Another developer, Tap Tap Tap, said on its blog last month that it pulled in $75,177.38 for two of its apps, the Tipulater tip calculator and the Where To? travel assistant, over a 24-day period. After Apple took its standard 30 percent cut, Tap Tap Tap was left with $52,815.
While this was encouraging, it said, there was also bad news in rapidly declining sales at the tail end of that period.
For all its frustrations, Minnesota developers still say they're excited about the App Store, and are scrambling to exploit this thriving and lucrative new marketplace.
DoApp has churned out other apps, including its popular myLite app that turns an iPhone into a flashlight or party light, and a myTo-Dos program for keeping track of personal tasks. All but one of DoApp's five available downloads are free — it charges $1 for a Magic 8-Ball-like myAnswers program.
Mariner Software of Minneapolis is working on a mobile version of its Calc software for iPhone and iPod Touch to read and edit Excel spreadsheets received by e-mail. Mariner President Mike Wray has relished "exploring uncharted territory" as a software developer and has begun planning for an iPhone-based version of his Write word processor.
CodeMorphic, another Minnesota developer, has just finished a streaming-audio app for Minnesota Public Radio junkies. That software lets them hear local news, classical music and pop music from local MPR stations via Wi-Fi or high-speed cellular connections on iPhones or iPod Touch players. The MPR-branded app was uploaded to the App Store earlier this month and became available late last week.
REFACTR JUMPS IN
Apple rejected two other CodeMorphic apps with humorous and edgy natures, according to company co-founder Damon Allison. The apps, created on behalf of another CodeMorphic customer, got dinged for "questionable content" in one case, Allison said, and "lack of utility" in the other case.
"Both were subjective measures," he noted, adding that his client "wasn't told why or what he needed to change."
CodeMorphic is hard at work on other iPhone apps, some intended for distribution by clients, and at least one — a picture-annotating application dubbed Aloha — likely to be distributed directly.
The firm recently made waves on the Web with a test program that mimics a rotary phone dialer. It has mulled whether to make that available for download, but a number of other rotary dialers (including a new one dubbed Bakelite) now exist.
"We're having a blast" as iPhone-app developers, Allison said. "Right now the iPhone is in its heyday."
Minneapolis-based Refactr, which develops software for its corporate clientele, also has begun to dabble in iPhone-based development but finds this process perplexing at times.
Because Apple restricts what third-party publishers can publicly say about its software-writing tools and how these are wielded, it can be difficult for writers to compare notes and help each other move forward, said Refactr principal Jesse O'Neill-Oine. An ecosystem of technical manuals, blogs and discussion forums for iPhone developers has yet to take root, he and others lament.
O'Neill-Oine echoes DoApp's complaint that Apple has been too secretive in how it approves iPhone software for App Store distribution.
"Apple has struck gold and bungled the whole process at the same time," O'Neill-Oine said. "They have shown the mobile space the direction forward. At the same time, there is so much animosity with the whole approval process. Apple has not been transparent at all."
Dealing with Apple is a mixed blessing, those publishers are discovering.
The California company exerts tight control over what apps can be installed on the iPhone and how that software is made available. It is sometimes secretive about the process, too. This has caused frustration as developers strain to discern what will or won't pass muster with the famously circumspect firm.
If Apple rejects an app, the author has to make changes based on often-cryptic information and with no guarantee the software will ever make the grade.
Take the Whoopie Cushion.
Minnesota-based DoApp announced this novelty application with fanfare in early July, bragging in a press release that "you can now have your iPhone pull the classic prank ... one that will make you and your friends roll with laughter."
Only one problem: The Whoopie Cushion software never showed up on the App Store, the Apple online storefront that is the only official site where iPhone apps can be sold and loaded onto phones.
DoApp had uploaded the software to the App Store, only to wait for weeks with nary a peep from Apple on why the app never became available for download.
In late August, Apple finally told DoApp via e-mail that its app "does not comply with Community Standards. When selling in the world market, community standards need to be taken into consideration, (and) bodily noises are not universally acceptable behavior."
DoApp marketing director Graeme Thickins wrote in an earlier DoApp blog post that "there is no rhyme or reason to how Apple decides to put apps on the App Store — meaning which ones, or in what order, or in what categories. And it's none of your business, thank you very much, since they're the most secretive company known to mankind!"
Apple has drawn ire from developers around the world for its App Store practices. It has pulled programs from the App Store without explanation after they were initially made available for download. It has rejected others because they purportedly mirror features in its own software, according to news reports.
In one highly publicized case, an iPhone program for streaming or directly downloading podcasts to the iPhone was denied App Store access, reportedly because it "duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes" —never mind that Apple's iTunes Store doesn't provide direct podcast downloads to iPhones, only via computers.
The author said on his blog last week that he asked Apple what changes to his Podcaster app were needed, but got no answer.
Apple declined to be interviewed for this story.
Such difficulties are all the more frustrating for developers because of how successful the App Store has become. Apple last week announced downloads had exceeded 100 million since the storefront's launch July 11. The App Store now offers more than 3,000 apps.
More than 600 of these are available at no cost, with developers hoping to establish a relationship with consumers who will eventually be willing to spend some money for future apps. The rest of the inventory at the App Store typically runs from $1 to $10. Many such apps also work on Apple's iPod Touch, a touch-screen device similar to an iPhone but without mobile-phone capabilities.
In a news release, Apple trotted out a quartet of iPhone developers who crowed about the ease with which software can be created and deployed and boasted about the App Store's revenue-generating potential.
Another developer, Tap Tap Tap, said on its blog last month that it pulled in $75,177.38 for two of its apps, the Tipulater tip calculator and the Where To? travel assistant, over a 24-day period. After Apple took its standard 30 percent cut, Tap Tap Tap was left with $52,815.
While this was encouraging, it said, there was also bad news in rapidly declining sales at the tail end of that period.
For all its frustrations, Minnesota developers still say they're excited about the App Store, and are scrambling to exploit this thriving and lucrative new marketplace.
DoApp has churned out other apps, including its popular myLite app that turns an iPhone into a flashlight or party light, and a myTo-Dos program for keeping track of personal tasks. All but one of DoApp's five available downloads are free — it charges $1 for a Magic 8-Ball-like myAnswers program.
Mariner Software of Minneapolis is working on a mobile version of its Calc software for iPhone and iPod Touch to read and edit Excel spreadsheets received by e-mail. Mariner President Mike Wray has relished "exploring uncharted territory" as a software developer and has begun planning for an iPhone-based version of his Write word processor.
CodeMorphic, another Minnesota developer, has just finished a streaming-audio app for Minnesota Public Radio junkies. That software lets them hear local news, classical music and pop music from local MPR stations via Wi-Fi or high-speed cellular connections on iPhones or iPod Touch players. The MPR-branded app was uploaded to the App Store earlier this month and became available late last week.
REFACTR JUMPS IN
Apple rejected two other CodeMorphic apps with humorous and edgy natures, according to company co-founder Damon Allison. The apps, created on behalf of another CodeMorphic customer, got dinged for "questionable content" in one case, Allison said, and "lack of utility" in the other case.
"Both were subjective measures," he noted, adding that his client "wasn't told why or what he needed to change."
CodeMorphic is hard at work on other iPhone apps, some intended for distribution by clients, and at least one — a picture-annotating application dubbed Aloha — likely to be distributed directly.
The firm recently made waves on the Web with a test program that mimics a rotary phone dialer. It has mulled whether to make that available for download, but a number of other rotary dialers (including a new one dubbed Bakelite) now exist.
"We're having a blast" as iPhone-app developers, Allison said. "Right now the iPhone is in its heyday."
Minneapolis-based Refactr, which develops software for its corporate clientele, also has begun to dabble in iPhone-based development but finds this process perplexing at times.
Because Apple restricts what third-party publishers can publicly say about its software-writing tools and how these are wielded, it can be difficult for writers to compare notes and help each other move forward, said Refactr principal Jesse O'Neill-Oine. An ecosystem of technical manuals, blogs and discussion forums for iPhone developers has yet to take root, he and others lament.
O'Neill-Oine echoes DoApp's complaint that Apple has been too secretive in how it approves iPhone software for App Store distribution.
"Apple has struck gold and bungled the whole process at the same time," O'Neill-Oine said. "They have shown the mobile space the direction forward. At the same time, there is so much animosity with the whole approval process. Apple has not been transparent at all."
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