Apple has gotten into some controversy for blocking programs from competing companies from being published in their app store. Their official response is that they have blocked certain products because they provide duplicate functionality. One example of this is and iPhone podcast client called Podcaster which apple states as having duplicate functionality as the Podcast section of iTunes. The author of the article states that it should not be expected of Apple to include competitive applications in its walled garden. This type of blocking brings into question how a company can call something a platform when it arbitrarily decides to eliminate competition.
I think that the company should not call it an open platform when it decides what programs it will allow to be used freely on it. I think that it is unethical to advertise as such and then after a programming team spends money and effort on a program, they aren’t able to advertise it in the mainstream marketplace. As stated in the article, good developers are afraid to make applications for the iPhone because they feel if they make Apple unhappy, their applications will be done for nothing and their time wasted. What this will create is an environment where high quality applications can not be created.
According to the article this same issue came up when Facebook opened up their platform to outside developers. After applications were developed, they copied them and used them for their own money making opportunities. Many investors that put money up for Facebook applications withdrew their funds and left these groups to die out. I think that this is unfair and should be treated as other intellectual property, where if a company opens up a platform, they can compete with others but can not block competitors from posting their applications. This can be compared to a grocery store opening up their shelves to everyone than copying their products and throwing them out.
References:
Article Link - http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10041187-62.html
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