Apple's "there's an app for that" campaign slogan may need to be changed to "there's an app for that (unless we reject it from the app store)." While Mozilla's Firefox has been steadily eating into the market share of Internet Explorer on the PC, a mobile version of the popular browser is not in the cards for the iPhone.
The problem? Apple.
"We're not investing time and energy in this direction because we're pretty sure it would be blocked by Apple," Tristan Nitot, Mozilla's European president, tells Electricpig. "So we're better off using our time in terms of development to do things on open platforms."
It's Apple's policy to reject anything that duplicates functionality that already exists on the iPhone. This is one of the stated reasons for rejecting Google Voice, and Mozilla feels it would be a waste of time and energy to develop an app that has a high chance of being rejected by Apple.
This is too bad considering that the iPhone's Safari browser -- once hailed for bringing the 'true' Internet to the mobile world -- is quickly falling behind the competition. Browsers like Skyfire, Firefox and others are providing a rich Internet experience not capable on an iPhone, thanks in part to the support for Adobe Flash that Apple currently bars from the iPhone.
Of course, while Apple's policy is to reject apps that duplicate the functionality of the iPhone, it is more accurate to say that Apple rejects *some* apps that duplicate this functionality and allows other apps to pass happily through. For example, textPlus, a great app that allows free texting, certainly duplicates the text messaging features of the iPhone but had no problem getting through the review process, while the duplication of texting features is one of the reasons Apple gave the FCC for rejecting Google Voice.
It's this type of unpredictability that begs the question of whether or not Apple will be allowed such strict control of the app store in the future. After all, Microsoft certainly couldn't get away with barring Firefox from Windows, despite the fact that they would no doubt love to do exactly that. And the more popular the iPhone becomes as a platform, the more governmental eyes will be on Apple's app store dictatorship.
Verizon-iPhone rumors start up again
Voyeur app Nude It taking iPhone by storm
More iPhone news
iPhone apps:
14 must-have iPhone apps
15 great iPhone travel apps for under $5
The best Twitter clients for the iPhone
Comments