Ask permission environments crush creativity and innovation. In healthy environments, when would-be innovators/creators identify opportunities the only thing that stands between the idea and its realization is work. In the iPhone OS environment when you see an opportunity, you put in work first, ask Apple’s permission and then, only after gaining their approval, your idea can be realized.
I’ve always worked at the edge; it’s where the interesting opportunities live. None of the startup I’ve created would have been possible in an ask permission environment. Normally, for the sake of the flow of the article, I’d elide the supporting examples, but today I’ll provide two:
In the mid nineties, ahead of even Amazon.com, I founded one of the earliest e-commerce companies. At that time, most banks forbid Internet credit card transactions. They were fearful, so they enacted policies that blocked innovation. Of course that wasn’t universal: a few banks bucked the trend and, together with entrepreneurs like me, created a new sector of the economy. Pedants will point out that we still needed a bank’s permission; more reasonable readers will observe that there was no single daddy entity whose approval we required.
Early last decade, at roughly the same time and in parallel, I created a company like PayPal. Person-to-person payments threatened the banking establishment to such an extent that we were routinely told PayPal-like transactions were criminally illegal. A decade later, Wired Magazine placed PayPal as the cornerstone of the future of money.
The innovation in both of these examples made the establishment uncomfortable — they’d have stopped us at the gates had they been able too. Apple can, at their least bit of discomfort.
That’s wrong. It’s been wrong. And, with the extension of this approach to the iPad, it’s becoming ever more wrong. And this week’s news that “Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript” — making verboten Corona, iPhone Wax, and Unity 3D, destroying one of the most innovative areas in iPhone dev — is more wrong still.
Without exception, whenever I’ve taken built an app to capitalize on one of my ideas it’s run afoul of Apple’s policies. My most recent example: CodePromo is my promo code fetching iTunes Connects helper app. I created it knowing — and accepting — that it would never be accepted in the store. It’s an app for developers, so source or developer binary resigning are both technically feasible alternatives for distribution. However, Apple could decide that this violates the Ts&Cs and kick me out of the program, thereby taking away my ability to support my family.
I’m fine with Apple curating the App Store. If they want to treat the App Store as an extension of their brand, fine. If that’s their goal, they should decimate — literally — the store, stripping out the crappy-yet-inoffensive dross. But provide unrestricted, frictionless, off-store distribution a la Android.
I’m a principled person. Apple’s offended my principles. Consequently, I’ve decided to abandon iPhone development. I won’t work in this ask-permission environment any longer.
What About The Site/Podcast?
This’ll be the last Mobile Orchard iPhone post and there’ll be no further iPhone podcasts. I’ll leave the site online as long as I have the server. I’m proud of the content we’ve created and won’t punish iPhone devs by pulling it offline. Ari’s This Week In iPhone/iPad News column will also be discontinued; he says he’ll start posting iPhone/iPad news items to his blog, so go subscribe if you’re interested.
What’s Next For Me?
Mobile Orchard is — well, was — how I earned a living. Teaching iPhone dev classes, plus a little from advertisers and our holiday bundle, provided enough income for me to keep my kids and wife warm, clothed and fed. So I need a new source of income.
I think the chances of Google making me Tim Bray-like offer (i.e, to pay for me to do this for the Android market) are virtually non-existent. That said, Google, if you’re reading this I’m interested. I’m a hybrid in the iPhone world: I produce tech and business content and commentary. I’m a great voice for the developer-entrepreneur community. I could do the same in Android land. Lacking that, maybe you’d at least send me a Nexus One?
I have two startup ideas of my own that I’m weighing and I’m interested in external opportunities (startup or otherwise). I’ve posted my bio here. Reach me at [email protected] or 612-423-3694.
Do me a favor: please don’t unsubscribe/unfollow. I’d like to be able to let you all know where I end up.
Thanks
Finally, I want to say thanks. Ari, you and your column have been invaluable. Peter, thanks for helping get things started. Thanks to the other contributors. Thanks for reading.
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