Friday, March 06, 2009

App Store For Jailbroken iPhones Coming?

I can’t figure out why people are so excited about the App store concept, but apparently somebody is going to create a paid app store for applications for jailbroken iPhones. I know a BlackBerry App store just launched, and Microsoft is salivating at the concept of a central app store for Windows Mobile devices. Me? I don’t care. Really, I don’t care. Let me explain, again.

The iPhone App store works for Apple because the iPhone is a locked down platform. Apple wants to maintain Stalinistic control over the platform for a variety of reasons, some of them actually being good. Others are just paranoid, but it’s Apple’s platform and they can do this if they like. Personally, I’m not that thrilled with the App store concept. A lot of good applications never make it because they either duplicate functionality already present in the device, or top-secret functionality to be added later. It takes forever to fix bugs and re-release software for the platform. The app store also doesn’t guarantee that applications will be useful, just that they pass Apple’s requirements.

Personally, I have no enthusiasm for app stores on either Windows Mobile or the BlackBerry platforms. I guess if they want to maintain a central repository, so be it, but I don’t mind the way things currently are.

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