On a touchscreen device, the hardware does not matter nearly as much as the OS, and google wants their OS on ALL hardware.

This is not the first time in history freedom has been used to condemn something, even though it has nothing to do with the condemned. Reminiscent of 1984 the book, where there are situations where the character is forced to reaffirm his allegiance to the state and what is “free,” similarly google are trying to leverage such a tactic, and I believe that is far more wrong than any curation apple provides for us.

I think people are excited about these things because people realize we are at a turning point in history, and everyone wants to have a part in dictating the “laws” of this new age.

Apple users don’t condemn android users. Android users seem to do so about apple. As apple users we enjoy our experience but don’t mind if others don’t because we know deep down that they are missing out. It seems that android users are bitter that a platform other rhan their own can have such loyalty.

There is no us Vs them in apple culture. There is no need to associate apple though publicity as “the choice of the free world” becuase the quality of apple products and the user experience speak for themselves.

Meanwhile google masquerades in this “righteous” guise.

Plus, we both know Google supports far more open-source projects than Apple does. A great example is Webkit, like you mention! Since the introduction of Chrome, Google has made far more commits to Webkit (via their Chromium open-source browser) than Apple has made (via Safari).

Obviously both Apple and Google have proprietary things, but Apple is FAR more controlling than Google is.

http://code.google.com/
http://code.google.com/opensource/

Comparing OS X and iPhone OS to Google’s search engine algorithm would be a better comparison because both are the key to each company’s success. Apple sells computers and iPhones because their software is excellent; Google is able to get lots of advertising revenue because their search engine algorithm is excellent.

The app store barely makes Apple any money, and the contents of the app store (all of the apps) are NOT (except for iWork and a few other apps) created by Apple. They could keep the app store and allow 3rd party apps on the iPhone without losing money (or they could just open up the app store completely without losing money).

This is like the argument that Facebook makes about privacy, essentially that “we don’t force you to sign up with us; therefore, EVERYTHING you share is by choice.” Well of course it is by choice that we sign up for Facebook, but why can’t we have the choice to share only SOME items that WE CHOOSE?

Apple does not owe me anything, no, you are right. But that is not exactly a counter-argument to my opinion, you’re just running away from the heart of the issue; namely, that Apple owns the app store and therefore does WHATEVER THE FUCK it wants to with it. What if countries operated like that?

Another potential backlash of Google’s cavalier and wild wild West method of competition is that it would transform America’s corporations into mediocre don’t-take-the-risk breed of businesses. As was exemplified by Microsoft’s monopoly over the OS market, every manufacturer that jumped on the Window’s bandwagon decided to stop innovating and to just produce commodity-type PC boxes. They contracted out the design and production of the PC boxes to Asian competitors and just slapped their labels on the boxes to distinguish themselves from the rest. In the end it is a loss to America and a gain to Asian competitors as they move up the value chain. Google is repeating the same mistake of Microsoft and this will affect badly on America’s competitiveness.

Since Google’s stranglehold on the world’s information is enormous, the bad it could do with all the information is unimaginable. It could use its clout to punish those who oppose it. It can also punish governments and act as a Fifth Column to its own country to further its own agendas. Google is evil … its wings must be clipped before the world is trapped inside the Google’s gulag.

Lukas, that’s the second time (at least) in this thread that you’ve made a point of argument, and then denied ever making it when someone presents a contradictory statement.

*You* used the term “a lot” to describe how many developers were unhappy with Apple’s Appstore policies. Kontra simply called you on that statement by highlighting the *fact* that as a percentage of developers out there, the number who have publicly stated they are unhappy is negligent. i.e. not “a lot”. His “challenge” as you put it, was simply for you to back up your claim.

The idea that this state of affairs would damage Apple, while perhaps not explicit in your argument, was most certainly *implicit* in your argument, so to deny that on the basis that you never actually said those specific words is grossly disingenuous.

Don’t bother replying. This thread has become a nonsense and I won’t be coming back to it.

Apple has passed the 100,000 developers mark long time ago. I think some time ago they had publicly announced 125,000 devs. For a quick comparison, the Android market has 1/4 of the App Store’s apps and 180,000 devs, as announced by Google yesterday. It’d be highly unlikely for Apple to have fewer than 100,000 devs as you stated.

Okay, that admittedly not great. But not useless either: Lots of useful apps are still on the first screen. Also, when I type “twitter” the auto-suggest system puts “twitterific” in #3 and “twitterific premium” in #6.

“Browsing by category is utterly useless, because the categories are too coarse. Unless something appears in the Top Paid or Top Free lists, you can’t get to it.”

The “top” lists are not short. I have found lots of apps by browsing by category, looking at top lists, and checking out staff picks.

I’m not disagreeing that there is room for improvement, but I do think there is some “curating” going on.

“I’m not sure what you’re seeing on your iPhone, but on mine, browsing for apps is useless, and searching typically returns a ton of crap.”

I don’t browse on the phone app much; I use iTunes for that. Lately, I have also used the iPad app.