Facebook iPhone developer quits over Apple’s app store policies

It’s the most popular free app for the iPhone, with over 12 million downloads. But the developer of Facebook’s iPhone app has quit the project in frustration with, and objection to, Apple’s iron-fist approach to apps.

Joe Hewitt says that Facebook for iPhone will live on through the work of a fellow developer at the social networking firm while he moves onto other projects. But he’s done with the iPhone, and he lays the blame squarely at Apple’s feet.

“I have only one major complaint with the App Store” Hewitt explained on his blog, “and I can state it quite simply: the review process needs to be eliminated completely.”

That’s certainly a long step away from the more common complaints of other developers that Apple’s app approval process is too slow, lacks transparency and often involves rejecting apps over seemingly minor objections such as its icon.

Hewitt simply doesn’t see a role for Apple as the sole gatekeeper to which apps are allowed to exist and which never see the light of day.

His opinion had raised the wrath of iPhone fans who believe that Apple provides a degree of quality control (well, except for all those fart apps).

“Does that sound scary to you, imagining a world in which any developer can just publish an app to your little touch screen computer without Apple’s saintly reviewers scrubbing it of all evil first? Well, it shouldn’t, because there is this thing called the World Wide Web which already works that way, and it has served millions and millions of people quite well for a long time now” Hewitt counters.

“If you think that all apps should be held prisoner by Apple until proven safe, you should also be able to convince yourself that this is how the Web should work.”

He also argues against claims that app approval ensures security against a wave of iPhone malware “because iPhone apps are sandboxed and have scarcely any more privileges than a Web app. About the only scary thing they can do outside the sandbox is access your address book, but Apple can easily fix that by requiring they ask permission first, just like they must do to track your location.”

Hewitt insists that Apple “does not have the means to perform thorough quality assurance on any app...
any bug that Apple finds after their two week delay would have been found by users on day one, and fixed on day two.”

“Apple may catch a few shallow bugs in the review process, but let’s face it, the real things they are looking for are not bugs, but violations of the terms of service. This is all about lawyers, not quality, and it shows that the model of Apple’s justice system is guilty until proven innocent. They don’t trust us, and I resent that, because the vast majority of us are trustworthy.”

Apple is well aware of developer concerns and ongoing criticism of its app approval process, and ironically a day after Hewitt ‘unfriended’ the App Store team Apple added status updates to its App Store approval process.

Developers can now check the progress of their app in the ‘app police’ pipeline, from “Waiting for Review” through to “Ready for Sale” if the app gets a green tick of approval.

However, there’s still no information regarding the specific nature of any extraordinary delay, such as may be encountered if the app raises a flag with the App Store’s oversight team and requires closer and more time-consuming investigation.