Is It Time for an Open Letter from Steve Jobs on the App Store?
Let’s just ask it: is it time for an open letter from Steve Jobs concerning the state of the iTunes App Store? Apple’s CEO has written several of these over the course of the last few years — rare public statements typically addressing wide-spread perceptions of critical problems or situations facing Apple. He’s taken on DRM in music (but not video) to prevent the EU from forcing Apple to license FairPlay DRM, offered $100 to early iPhone 2G buyers incensed by a rapid post-launch price drop, addressed the lack of native apps on the iPhone amid massive developer dissatisfaction, espoused Apple’s commitment to the environment given Greenpeace’s constant PR pressure, and spoken about the uncertainty surrounding his health prior to Macworld to help assuage investor panic. There was even a “leaked” internal letter regarding the troubled MobileMe launch, one of the worst customer relations situations Apple has faced in recent years.
While the App Store is not yet a large-scale consumer facing problem like the iPhone 2G price cut or MobileMe were (some consumers don’t even use the App Store, many others don’t follow any backstage news about), nor a regulatory issue like DRM-music threatened to be (Apple is hardly a monopoly in the smartphone space) or Jobs’ health might have been to investors, it is and will continue to cause Apple pain in one very important area: tech savvy, power users (and media) who typically influence friends (and readers) and generally presage public perception.
Jason Calacanis, who’s frustration at this point clearly overcame his reason (see Marco Arment’s retort), and Mike Arrington, who might again garner Leo Laporte-esque responses himself, are easy to dismiss given their bombastic personalities, passion, and self-interests. Others aren’t so easily dismissed. Long time Mac developer Steven Frank is one example. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is another. Dieter’s ranted about it on iPhone Live! and Jeremy and I have even written a word or two. Heck, even Apple’s highly operational COO Tim Cook and perennially affable Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, have mentioned it.
But Steve Jobs hasn’t.
Granted, Jobs is just getting back to work after an extended leave of absence and has been letting his team do their share of heavy lifting, but despite Apple’s highly innovative, world class executive team, Steve Jobs is still the voice of Apple, and there’s likely very little else — aside from carefully watching and tracking tiny improvements over an extended period of time — that will help ease the growing concerns about the App Store and grant Apple a little renewed faith along the way.
An open letter from Steve Jobs in Apple’s news feed, symbolic though it may be, stating a clear “we want a delightful App Store experience for developers” manifesto, reflecting an understanding of the current concerns, offering a “Mobile Me News” olive branch of openness — doing what he did for DRM, the $100 credits, the green initiative, the native apps SDK — would not only address the immediate perception problem, but could start fixing the root cause. Even a “leaked” letter like the one that followed MobileMe’s launch would be a start.
Apple’s often effective, often decried, culture of secrecy is widely thought to emanate from Steve Jobs. He’s shattered it before for Apple’s benefit. Is it time for him to shatter it again?
August 10th, 2009 at 8:16 am
I think it would be a start and let developers know that apple is indeed listening. You are very right about the power users influencing the rest. Just this weekend I was at a crab fest/BBQ and a friend walked up and pulled out his new iPhone he got the day before and started asking what apps he should look for becuase the store is so full he didn’t know how to possibly wade through them all. I know many who are having their contracts end soon and I get questions all the time, and I could just as easily say to consider other options.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:14 am
There is no question about it, Apple is losing support and losing it fast. They’re ******** over developers and users, and the only way to stop the bleeding is for something like an open letter from Steve Jobs.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Apple’s open letters are successful because they typically announce news or other substantive changes — a pricing shift, a policy change, or a refund/credit for a past mistake.
Even Jobs’ detractors acknowledge the man has power and charisma. An “open letter” from him that offered a concrete set of steps for the App Store would succeed wildly, and re-energize disaffected developers. A purely symbolic letter, on the other hand, saying they want to delight developers without at least outlining a skeletal plan how, would backfire badly, as developers would have to assume Apple is planning no more than lip service to their concerns.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I think most tech people over-react. CJ Millisock shows this well.
I would argue that this matters only for developers.
Sting7k has a better feel on things. There are too many junk apps in the store to dig through. That’s the real problem.
When Apple has a solid approval process that looks at programming more than content they’ll do better.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am
CJ: You got some data to back that up or is that just blog babble…?
August 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
In the big wide world this just isn’t a major issue despite what readers might think from reading blogs. It is a serious concern for a small number of developers but not for customers. In the real world, people are far more concerned about the preponderance of junk applications than are concerned about disgruntled developers. Jobs would be a fool to issue an ‘open letter’ in the manner of past major issues as it would simply serve to elevate the matter.
Comments like ‘Apple is losing support and losing it fast. They’re ******** over developers and users, and the only way to stop the bleeding…’ are nonsense. There is no evidence to support any suggestion that store submissions are dropping off. Quite the opposite. Various major developers have announced their plans for upcoming iPhone apps. These wild-eyed comments only serve to discredit the legitimate concerns expressed by anxious developers.
Apple needs to revise its procedures. The recent improvements (in communications options) show they are listening and moving in the right direction. Hopefully the annual September announcements will bring a major revamping of the whole process.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Lets be honest. Never gonna happen. They are making money hand over fist and its only going to increase.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I think a open LETTER is not going to cut it unless it amounts to a sweeping REVERSAL of multiple policy decisions that go well beyond the App Store.
Start reading articles that are popping up everywhere about Apple. And before dismiss them like Jack did above, remember that this is not Microsoft they are talking about, its APPLE, the company that could do no wrong, the company that always got a free pass in the press for every transgression, the company that was the darling of the press for 20 years:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Apple-and-Google-on-Brain-Vacation-67817.html
Evil Steve is back: http://tinyurl.com/lejhg6
FCC new handset Rules: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/10wireless.html
People are getting pissed.
I think Apple takes a lot of shots that should be aimed at ATT, but its still their fault for letting ATT tell them what to do.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
@The Dave:
In your haste to post did you fail to read past the first sentence in the article? Like, all the way up to the SECOND sentence?
Apple was making money hand over fist when each of those open letters were published in the past.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Too little too late. The App store is 99% useless. I haven’t downloaded an app in ages, aside from the few games that I tried and promptly deleted.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Michael Arrington http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/31/i-quit-the-iphone/
Om Malik http://gigaom.com/2009/02/11/my-big-iphone-break-up/
Steven Frank http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/152606616/im-furious-with-apple-and-at-t-right-now-with
First off, for the record, the ******** was not the F-Bomb. I wrote “scre_wing”. I think I came across as being angrier than I really am.
Secondly, perhaps an open letter isn’t required. Perhaps this isn’t as big an issue as I’ve been thinking. I think thousands of developers will continue to developer for the iPhone, and millions of customers will continue to enjoy downloading these apps. And Apple will continue to rake in profits.
What WILL change for sure though, is that the iPhone will cease to be the best.
Right now, the iPhone is the best phone on the US market (Yes, I am arrogantly stating this as fact). I maintain that this kind of policy from Apple will severely hurt them in the long run. This matters to developers (see Steven Frank) as well as the tech industry’s thought leaders (see Mike and Om). These people realize that openness wins out in the end. The reason they (myself included, so ‘we’) are so distraught is that the iPhone had the potential to be great, instead of just groundbreaking. Apple’s overly controlling methodologies provide a lot of room for a competitor to come in and trump it (Android) by being more open.
@evilhomer, see the three links above
@Jack Dodson. How are legitimate concerns being expressed by anxious developers being discredited?
August 11th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
@Jack Dodson
There is a connection between disgruntled developers and a preponderance of low-quality applications, because the better developers are among the first who can migrate their skills and energy to another platform. This goes for companies as well as for individual developers.
For example, there are several apps in the App Store that use BBC content, but nothing from the BBC itself, despite the fact that they have some very talented developers on staff, and would in all likelihood make something far, far better than what is out there. However, they feel they cannot make apps for the iPhone while Apple’s developer terms and conditions remain as they are:
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-bbc-hovers-on-iphone-apps-due-to-apple-terms/