RSSFacebook for iPhone developer goes from Apple supporter to 'I quit!' in 3 months
By Tim Conneally | Published November 11, 2009, 8:30 PM
If you're an iPhone user with a Facebook account, chances are good that you have Facebook for iPhone. In fact, it has roughly 17.3 million users, or about 28% of the 60 million users accessing Facebook on a mobile device.
One of the developers who worked on that app is Joe Hewitt, who today tweeted: "Time for me to try something new. I've handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I'm onto a new project."
He's not just leaving the Facebook project, but abandoning the iPhone altogether.
Hewitt told TechCrunch today that he quit the project because of Apple's strict approval and management policies in the iTunes App Store.
He said: "My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple's policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer."
This is quite a turn of events, considering Hewitt's last blog entry in August said: "No matter how annoyed I get, I will not stop developing for Apple's platforms or using Apple's products as long as they continue to produce the best stuff on the market. I never forget how deeply Apple cares about making their users happy, and that counts more than how they treat their developers. Besides, when I have a problem with a friend, I don't threaten to boycott our friendship until they change, so I'm not going to do that to Apple either."
The developer he's handed the app over to is Owen Yamauchi, a Facebook software developer and former Apple engineer.
good thing he quit, that app doesnt load up my wall! says "error" each time, reinstalling does nothing. I have to log in to the actual webpage to see wall comments lol crap
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|Clearly everyone out there must hate Steve Jobs.
http://arstechnica.com/a...d-ceo-of-the-decade.ars
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|That has nothing to do with the products or even how much people like the guy...just that he made a lot of profit selling it.
I could Goodwin the topic by bringing up another person who was very good at marketing his "ideals", but the point is that success has little to do with how likable the guy is or Apple's products quality/functionality. Only that the company did much better under his leadership
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|Meanwhile, back in this reality...
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|Wow, someone doesn't like the iPhone. Surely the sky is falling now, right??
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|iPhone: "Hi, I am an iphone."
droid: "Hi, I am an android."
droid: "iPhone, How are your 100,000+ apps treating you?"
iPhone: *poot* "Just great, the latest fart application is fantastic"
droid: "Can we use google voice yet on you?"
iPhone: "Why would you want to when you can impress your friends with the latest fart app, or the latest $999.99 app that just displays I am rich in big shiny letters?"
droid: "I see your point. I guess those features make up for lack of real quality applications"
iPhone: "Damn skippy. Our users don't want GPS improvement applications or local area search tools that actually work. They want farts! *poot*"
droid: *facepalm*
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|We'd love to have him develop for Palm Pre WebOS :)
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|"when I have a problem with a friend, I don't threaten to boycott our friendship until they change, so I'm not going to do that to Apple either"
I guess when you have a friend that constantly rapes your earnings with no just cause (c'mon, obviously a tiny build change doesn't need a major review and addt'l blood-review payment) -- then you stop calling him a friend one day.
He's one of the first to wake up. I said it on a different thread -- even the biggest Apple fan boys will eventually look deep inside and say "Apple gear IS NOT the best in the world EVEN WITHOUT taking cost into consideration". Windows 7 (or 8..or 9) will be just that. Windows Mobile 7 (or 8..or 9) will be just that.
Apple is going DOWN. I've said it a few dozen times here in recent weeks... Resorting to HATE AD CAMPAIGNS is a clear sign of panic...
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|And that's why I jailbreak.
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|I hope you changed your SSH password or you like your Rick Astley wallpaper.
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|Scaring away potential app developers? Yeah, there's an app for that.
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|LOL! That is priceless.
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|LOL! You just made my morning.
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|Glad I can bring some sunshine to peoples days :)
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|I am an iPhone developer and... Joe Hewitt has a very valid point!
Would you like one day Apple to review all the apps you run on your computer? No way, Jose!
I hope they will get their act together soon!
The quality judgment should be done by the user and not by the distributor.
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|"Would you like one day Apple to review all the apps you run on your computer?"
This is neither analogous nor possible. Apple would have to become the sole distributor of all computers and all software.
"I am an iPhone developer..."
So does this mean you are compromising your principles to make a buck? If so, that isn't Apple's fault.
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|All these people saying this guy is nuts...gimme a break! Apple approves 100 different fart apps but won't let something like "who is is my congressmen in my state" app?! Apple craps on apps they feel threaten their earnings or, as he stated, for reasons that make no clear sense...PERIOD.
Now while I am all for free market and capitalism, you cannot fault this guy for bailing. His reasons ARE VALID. They just might not be compatible in a capitalistic business market.
Having said that, Apple isn't even playing by traditional capitalism rules, they're eff'n nuts on app store approvals.
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|On the contrary, Apple running their business as they choose is EXACTLY what Capitalism is all about. The fact that customers and partners can choose to do business with them or not based on that knowledge is EXACTLY what Capitalism is all about.
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|Yet another reason on the long list of why Apple sucks. I don't need Apple to be my app nanny telling me what I can and can not run. This is a choice that should be left up to the consumer. Oh well I guess my next phone will be either a Windows or Android phone.
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|I guess this guy should have realized from the start that Apple only lets special people develop software for the iPhone.
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|I guess the iPhone Nazis will someday kill the iPhone themselves.
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|Don't you mean 'iQuit!', Tim? =)
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|i like it :)
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|This is the trendy information that's flowing under the radar and this is why I think more smartphones are going to go to ANDROID. While the review process is required, it's a point of friction and enough to turn developers away and go in a different direction. This is a prime example.
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|Why would that have any effect on more smart phones going to Android?
It's not as though developers for iPhone are going to cause Apple to go to Android because they're dissatisfied. Besides, manufacturers of phones only have so many choices: Android, Maemo, Windows Mobile.
As far back as the Apple II, Apple and developers for Apple have had a rocky relationship. I can't imagine why a Facebook developer would be concerned with approval policies for that application or could it be some unrelated product? Apple do need to get their act together in the review process. Why my calculator application would have to be marked 17+ because someone could enter 5318008 and turn it upside down is beyond me.
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|The only reason anyone is going to Android is cause it's the only thing out there aside from apple and windows mobile. Android is really not popular yet. it may be someday. but that will apperently take time. Cause for one people either intrenched in blackberry or iphones. Android is a option for other carriers to try and combat iphone. Which is does a little, but it's still not and never will be a iphone. If you dont have a iphone then you will never understand. If you have one you know it's the greatest thing ever.
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|Speaking as someone who is surrounded by his fair share of iPhone users (both friends and family members), and having had the chance on numerous occasions to use them (all versions of both hardware and OS), I can definitely tell you that they are indeed not the greatest thing ever. They have always had the potential to be, though... it's just too bad that Apple and AT&T keep getting in the way.
What I find hilarious is that through all of my disdain for Apple and AT&T hamstringing the device and forcing customers to do without such trivial and basic features that other phones have had for several years, most of those very same iPhone users have expressed far greater distaste for the device, and either cannot wait for their contract to expire, or have already jumped ship the moment it did.
Most of the ones who already replaced their iPhones opted for Android phones, and they couldn't be happier.
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|oh get your head out of your butt!
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|I haven't met a single regular iPhone user who doesn't love it. The technical community certainly has valid arguments about the grief Apple gives them over approving apps but the (much) greater general population just doesn't know nor care about that. Apple understands the consumer much better than does the technical community.
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|not sure if your sarcastic on this one, but damn it i agree!
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|wierd, for me its been the excact opposite! all of my friends that had android phones (g1's) have either dumped those things for iphone or always complain about how they "should of just bought the iphone", ofcourse only after me showing them the potential of jailbroken itoys.
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|@ Adrian79:
Actually, if Apple and AT&T had released an iPhone that had the capabilities and features enabled that a jailbroken iPhone provides, I most likely would have one myself.
I or anyone else shouldn't have to risk bricking the device just to be able to make it do everything it should have been able to do since release day.
I have always loved the phone itself, and it's mainly because of the potential I see in it through jailbroken phones, oddly enough.
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|You must have a very small circle of iphone gushing friends!
I have not met you, but you can certainly count me in as an iphone hater!
I'm leaving apple and ATT the moment my contract is up (maybe even earlier if the both of them keep irritating me). From lousy ATT customer service, lousy ATT wireless coverage to ARROGANT apple 'genius's' I am simply FED UP!
Gimme an Android, PLEASE!
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|ya i hear you, but even the most newbiest person in the world can not brick an iphone via jailbreaking.
impossible, worst thing can happen- click the restore button on itunes, and bammmm back to factory :)
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|lol iphone hater, sorry to hear about your luck.
from FL to NY (places i travel to and/or live):
reception= 100%, customer service= I dont use that, just the webpage to pay my bills, apple genius? never heard of em :)
lol
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|LOL maybe i should've added i was referring to bigsexy022870...
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|@yountmj: The situation in the U.S.A. is worse since AT&T is a terrible wireless company. It's the reason I have an iPod touch instead of an iPhone.
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|For me it has been the opposite. My friend has his entire family on Apple products and his complaints about the iPhone have not ceased yet. From the fact that it doesn't have a built in compass to the lack of MMS, it has been non-stop complaints. I recently got my MyTouch3G and he drools over it simply because it has a built-in compass. Then, when I told him mine was rooted and I could literally do anything I want with the phone... well, his AT&T contract expires in Feburary... He's looking at Droid now...
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