Apple is arbitrarily choosing what apps they allow and what they don't – even if an application follows all of the rules that they've set out for their developers.

Apple shouldn't decide what apps are in the best interests of their audience… iPhone owners are pretty much as diverse as they come and Apple deciding which applications fills their users needs is impossible. I'm not an iPhone gamer, but I'd buy an “ultimate guitar chord/scale” app. I would also use an app like Big5 – because, like a lot of iPhone users – I'm technically inclined and I like the Internet – and if I could visit a site that takes advantage of the features of the $300 phone that I'm browsing a site on, I would like that.

All of this close-mindeness and opaqueness poses a really really obvious problem – if developers are going to invest (RISK) their time and expertise developing for a proprietary platform with no guarantee that they will be allowed to actually launch their app at some point developers are going to stop innovating and the only apps on the app store will be bejeweled clones and flashlights.

Apple is arbitrarily choosing what apps they allow and what they don't – even if an application follows all of the rules that they've set out for their developers.

Apple shouldn't decide what apps are in the best interests of their audience… iPhone owners are pretty much as diverse as they come and Apple deciding which applications fills their users needs is impossible. I'm not an iPhone gamer, but I'd buy an “ultimate guitar chord/scale” app. I would also use an app like Big5 – because, like a lot of iPhone users – I'm technically inclined and I like the Internet – and if I could visit a site that takes advantage of the features of the $300 phone that I'm browsing a site on, I would like that.

All of this close-mindeness and opaqueness poses a really really obvious problem – if developers are going to invest (RISK) their time and expertise developing for a proprietary platform with no guarantee that they will be allowed to actually launch their app at some point developers are going to stop innovating and the only apps on the app store will be bejeweled clones and flashlights.

Much like Nokia has a signing method for there S60 apps, but people can still bypass this and experiment.

If you want to play with cutting edge stuff, jailbreak the phone and quit whining. The rest of Apple's “normal” customers are probably much better off with Apple doing a bit of QC for them first.

If 90+% of people in the 90's hadn't been exposed to Internet Explorer, they'd have used some other browser. Imagine how many fewer sites (and appliances) would require IE now. I dare you to buy a LinkSys managed switch without owning a Window's PC. And it has a web-GUI!

So you used bad example. Fine. Your point, it would appear, might be summed up with a question like this: “to what degree should Apple manage security risks on the new iPhone platform?”

There is a whole spectrum of positions one might take on this question. But there are a few aspects of the iPhone as a software platform to keep in mind:

- Apple has said publicly that the iPhone/iPod Touch are a huge part of their handheld computing platform
- Apple's 'plaftorms' since the return of Jobs have life times measured in decades (iMac, notebooks, Xserve, Mac OS X, iPod)
- The iPhone as a software platform is only 3 months old

Discussions like this one can serve to inform and even apply pressure as Apple continues to develop this nascent platform. But to expect Apple to treat the iPhone platform as a mature platform (even if it is fairly polished compared to other handheld platforms) might be a bit like asking a parent to make their toddler clean up her room before she can watch TV. Right idea; wrong time.

I agree that IE itself wasn't that important – but the concept behind it was – release an application that spawns innovation and fix the security holes when they arise. Windows is a nest for malicious software because they chose innovation over caution. But without that, the computer industry wouldn't be where it's at today, and Apple would have never been able to establish itself as the 'safe alternative' and the 'cool kid on the block.'

The funny thing is, I'm writing this from a macbook pro

Assuming that without internet explorer that there would be no mass exposure to the internet is wrong on many levels. Without IE being built into the os, it may have taken a year or two more at worst, but the momentum was definitely there already.

I have a feeling you'll like android. My personal opinion is that in 10 years, it'll be the windows of the mobile space, full of virus / trojans and whatnot. I've looked (briefly) at how they are doing security, but honestly, not stopping / testing apps before they go out will really make this a playground for a lot of nasty people. But we'll get the apps