Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny
Facebook developer Joe Hewitt, the man behind the immensely popular Facebook application for iPhone, has just tweeted that he’s done with the project:
“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. … 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.”
That’s the headline and an excerpt from the opening of a TechCrunch post tonight on the lead developer of Facebook’s iPhone app saying he’s done with it.
Facebook has always been one of the ‘poster child’ apps for the iPhone App Store – ever since back in the day when we only had web apps.
This has to count as pretty shocking news – when the developer of such a flagship iPhone app not only quits the iPhone app development project, but weighs in with such strong views against the App Store review process and makes clear it’s his reason for quitting work on the platform.
I think it may be the most embarrassing moment yet for Apple’s policies and management of the store.
My only – probably way over-optimistic – thought on a possible silver lining to this, is that maybe this is a sharp enough shock to make Apple look much harder at their review practices. Enough of an embarrassment to make them actually do something about some of the ridiculous processes that so many of us complain about on just about a weekly basis by now.
It’s also another incident that reinforces for me the idea that the biggest danger to the iPhone OS’s dominant position as a mobile apps platform is Apple themselves, not any of their rivals.
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And hopefully it will be a wake up call….
Unfortunately, Apple will probably not even care, taking the attitude of “Yeah, whatever”. They’ll probably make the life of whoever picks up maintenance on the FB app just as miserable.
I'm with Sebastien – or should I say 'Our Man Down Under' – on this. I hold out a little hope that this may be such bad PR and such a blow to their image in the developer community that it might get their attention a bit. Maybe …
I bet Facebook 3.0 takes even longer to be released now…
LOL – ya think?
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