Developers cheer Apple’s apps watershed

As the gatekeeper to the thriving new market for apps that has grown up around Apple’s iPhone and other devices, Steve Jobs has developed a distinctly mixed relationship with developers.

The iOS operating system, included on the iPod touch and the iPad as well as Apple’s smartphone, has been shipped on 120m devices, creating the first big market for apps.

In particular, it has opened the way for a new cottage industry of the lightweight software applications that sell in the company’s App store.

However, restrictions on the software tools developers can use to create their apps, and the vague and unspoken rules that determine which apps would be allowed into the store, left many developers feeling disgruntled.

These restrictions offered further evidence of Mr Jobs’ personal reputation for control and secrecy, although he said the curbs were put in place in the interests of maintaining quality.

The decision by Apple, announced on Thursday, to relax the restrictions on developer tools and to publish guidelines about when it will reject apps, is therefore something of a watershed.

“It’s wonderful to hear,” said David Helgason, chief executive of Unity Technologies, which makes software tools that developers use to create 3D games for Apple’s devices.

That view rippled through the apps world, as developers and bloggers who had complained about Mr Jobs’ restrictive approach welcomed the change of heart.

The move comes as app developers have begun turning more of their attention to Google, whose rival smartphone software platform, Android, has been gaining ground on Apple in recent months.

“Developers were beginning to target Android first and iOS second,” says Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at Forrester Research. With a more open platform that is more in tune with the open-source values that most developers share, Google’s approach has appealed to many, even if its mobile marketplace has so far failed to attract as much interest as Apple’s, he added.

“We haven’t seen the same runaway hits on Android yet,” says Mr Helgason, though he said that such breakthroughs were almost certain to come, and would have the effect of drawing many more developers to the Google ecosystem.

Against that background, Apple’s decision to disclose the ground rules for when it will accept or reject applications was widely welcomed, in spite of the vagueness of some of the wording in its new guidelines.

The company’s decision to limit access to the App store, rather than open it to all-comers, attracted criticism from internet freedom advocates, who accused Mr Jobs of subverting the open-access principles on which the web was based.

Some developers have expressed specific concerns that Apple could use its control to block access to apps that compete directly with some of the core applications that it controls on the iPhone, such as music and communications.

In defence of its controls on access, Apple sought to set apps apart from other forms of communication, in part because they can be freely downloaded by children. “So know that we’re keeping an eye out for the kids,” the company said in an introduction to its guidelines.

“If you want to criticise a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app.”

While spelling out its new rules in some detail on what would be acceptable on grounds of taste, however, Apple said it would retain a blanket power to reject apps it found unsuitable.

“We will reject apps for any content or behaviour that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’”.