Steven Frank Gets Reply From Phil Schiller on iPhone Boycott

After years of dealing with Apple, I've learned that the only thing that gets their attention is negative press.<p>It's pretty clear that they're listening.<p>This is why I find comments disparaging those who complain about the App Store to be remarkably silly and short-sighted. Complaining -- publicly -- is exactly how you get a corporation like Apple to change. Unless you disagree with their aims, why disparage those that voice their negative opinions in an effort to enact change?

<i>He went on to say that the rumors of widespread e-book app rejection I’d heard were false — that specifically one e-book app had been rejected because it facilitated iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of (potentially copyrighted) books. But that otherwise, there was no sweeping ban on e-book readers.</i><p>That's only true under Apple's tortured reasoning that they're not 'banning' apps by only allowing them rated XXX, even in the period before the rating system was live.

It's great that Apple are listening, but this quote from the article stands out to me:<p>"Technically, nothing specific has actually visibly changed in the last few days. I said I wouldn’t go back until I could see actual demonstrable progress being made."<p>Of the legitimate concerns Steven Frank raised, did Phil Schiller commit to anything actionable or measurable?

NEWS FLASH: Corporation gives non-answer, changes jack shit, and expects sympathy and understanding. Typical.

Apple is known for their secrecy and grand announcements. The debacle they have gotten themselves into in this case requires transparency to get out of gracefully. I hope that Phil makes some sort of (grand) summary announcement about their upcoming transparency. And that it actually materializes.

Note to all: Phil Schiller is actually a human being who lives on earth and reads the news. He also sends an email from time to time.

Apple is trying to do innovative things like the App Store. In trying something new, they made mistakes. And if they want to keep innovating, they have to keep making new mistakes. I hear all the time that we as entrepreneurs need to fail fast and fail often to innovate.<p>I think this is just the price of innovation. You're not going to hit ever ball out of the park and some foul balls will wind up hitting someone in the stands.<p>Keep making good reasoned arguments about the flaws but boycotting seems unreasonable.

There are two things stopping the iPhone from having an impact comparable to the original Macintosh: (1) The closed nature of the App Store and (2) being tied to a single carrier.<p>Remove those two restrictions, and the iPhone becomes a new geek toy, which will translate into apps which are <i>much</i> better than what we have on the AppStore right now. The barrier to entry into the AppStore is simply too high, which is keeping most developers from taking on more ambitious projects.

This personal approach to the problem by Apple is the best thing they can do at this point. Now they need to follow up not only with words, but with actions -- make the App Store a fun place to develop for again.