satine.org

by Charles Ying

iPhone – Just Like Developing For Nintendo

September 14th, 2008

DOOM and GLOOM! The blogosphere is whining about Apple’s recent App Store rejections. (Surprisingly, even John Gruber.) Only Mikey has a contrarian view, but sadly always has Facebook on the brain.

Look, developing for iPhone is just like developing for a Nintendo console.

Nintendo owns the hardware. Nintendo owns the distribution mechanism. Nintendo doesn’t publish rules on what you can and cannot build.

And they do just fine. Many developers still develop great stuff for Nintendo DS and Wii. Why? It’s successful and profitable. And Nintendo is far more of a pain in the ass than Apple.

Common sense says: You’re not going to develop an Italian plumber 2D platform scroller for a Nintendo DS. Even if you were thinking about it, you’d talk to Apple about it first.

Should Apple get a free pass then? No.

Does this mean App Store is doomed? It hasn’t doomed Nintendo (not yet anyway).

Will Apple innovate over Nintendo and reverse their decision? Yes, and I’m sure it’s coming soon.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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5 Responses to “iPhone – Just Like Developing For Nintendo”

  1. Erik Novales Says:
    September 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    This is not a good comparison, because all console manufacturers have a concept approval/greenlight phase that happens relatively early in the development process. This approval phase is meant to prevent the exact situation that Apple has run into with the iPhone App Store approval process.

    I expect Apple to come up with a similar concept approval process for “pro” developers, but leave the approval process unchanged for individual/small developers.

  2. wzad Says:
    September 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    theres certain apps that could never be published in the app store because they conflict with apple’s interests.

    its quite simple, if they let every single app through the door, the app store would be filled with utter garbage. already 80% + of the stuff on there is crap anyways.

    besides, if you want apps that are actually useful, you should jailbreak your phone anyways

  3. Heather Says:
    September 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    Mr. Ying~

    I stumbled upon your site looking for pictures of Willow and Tara from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” I saw your sketch “Growing Up” and absolutely fell in love with it. Do you sell prints of your pieces by any chance, or are they only available to look at online? Please let me know if you read this; I couldn’t find a contact link for you on this blog.

    Heather shirkie@gmail.com

  4. John Vols Says:
    January 2nd, 2009 at 1:30 am

    quite simple, if they let every single app through the door, the app store would be filled with utter garbage. already 80% + of the stuff on there is crap anyways.

    John

    http://www.romplay.com

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    March 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

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