mymediamusings

Apple’s Stranglehold on iPhone Apps is Puzzling

: Image by ீ ๑ Adam via Flickr

There is a pretty good overview in the NYT about Apple’s attempts to make is declared somehow illegal to jailbreak your iPhone:

downloading a bit of software that bypasses Apple’s restrictions and allows the installation of unsanctioned third-party programs.

Forgetting the legal issues surrounding this question, I find myself struck by just how audacious, and ultimately doomed to fail, it is for Apple to try and lock the iPhone platform so that only software it approves is usable.

Aside from pure gaming systems (XBox, etc.), I can’t think of a legitimate computing platform that attempts to exert this level of control. Even on my Mac I can download and install any software I choose. Sure. I risk crashing my computer, but it is my computer and it is mine to crash.

I understand the financial advantages of Apple being the sole outlet for iPhone Apps but it doesn’t seem likely that they can maintain this position if they continue to so tightly restrict the applications offered for sale. As long as Apple blocks useful or entertaining apps from their shop there will be plenty of people willing to do whatever it takes to get access to the banned content.

According to the NYT, the jailbrak community doesn’t appear to be posing a signficant threat to Apple’s bottomline, either:

William H. Greene, a professor of economics at New York University who studies digital entertainment, said most jailbreaking software is free and does not hurt sales of the iPhone. Some applications available through the independent channels had been rejected by Apple for inclusion in its store. “It’s hard to see where Apple is being harmed by this,” he said.

It would be nice to see Apple, on its own, examine and reevaluate their positions both on having to approve of the content of Apps before sale and on their Sisyphean efforts to halt jailbreaking but something tells me they will have to be forced their by the market.

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