Apple limits its freedom for iPhone developers and application makers. Can it get any worse? To people that think iPhone was such an open garden, this might just show how Apple means it with it’s openness, showing it’s much more walled than many operators are. If I would compare this with mobile operators, this would mean mobile operators would, by terms and conditions, block any developers to sell on 3rd party portals, which is, in my opinion, insane.

Apple, probably being scared of the so many hacked iPhones and the open application stores out there for hacked iPhones, made a strict policy:

“As of now, developers are not allowed to sell iPhone apps on alternative stores that aim at jailbreaked iPhones. Developers who do, will risk loosing their contract. At the same time, developers that have an agreement with Apple are no longer aloud to create software for jailbreaks, unlocks and other hacks. On violation, the contracts might be terminated as well.”

This means, go against us, and we’ll basically deleted you from the AppStore, which for many developers is unacceptable. Now that’s for the iPhone. But what abou the Apple competitor, Google, with it’s open platform Google Android? What if someone came with a truly different Android Market for the Android, which would be perhaps billing and operator friendly, would not require opt-in credit card to Google, and would be perhaps more open in terms of content limitations?

Well let’s see on that one, it will be interesting to watch both platforms emerge.

Tags: apple appstore, apple iphone, appstore