Apple and Microsoft battle over app developers
The force behind the success of the Apple App Store is the app developer, and Microsoft is working to lure them over to their system at a time when the App Store is taking it’s lumps.
Microsoft is making a lot of noise with a recent case study detailing how easy it is to move an iPhone app to the Windows mobile platform. The study itself focuses on an Apple app named “Amplitude†that makes music into visual graphics on the iPhone. Although written by a third party, the case study could not state the Microsoft case more clearly. Moving a complex app from the iPhone to Windows Mobile is easy: here’s how.
The Microsoft community is obviously very pleased with the idea of getting all those apps moved to Windows Mobile, according to an InformationWeek story. As an example, Constanze Roman, a Windows Mobile community team manager, said of the app and the case study in a recent blog, “It combines a rich user interface with features such as alpha blending and transparency with specific audio and sound requirements, which makes it challenging to port the app but, at the same time, provides a number of helpful learning experiences.â€
And this comes at a time when the practices of the Apple App Store are coming under more and more pressure. Consumers don’t like underhanded dealings, and that is what the entire Google Voice fiasco looks like to many people. It simply looks like Apple is being petty. And it looks very much like they are jerking their developers around again, given that all apps centered around Google Voice were pulled.
That situation, taken on top of all the other seemingly capricious decisions that have been made in the App Store, must have developers very worried. In the beginning, the App Store was going to be a peaceful place: just don’t do porn or illegal stuff, and you’re in. That is turning out not to be the case. The App Store has become political.
So, at a time when Apple is giving developers ample reason to worry about the rationale behind App Store decisions, and is making them think about how easily their revenue stream could be cut off, Microsoft is making it easy to move in their direction. Apple is at the top of the heap partially on the back of app developers. If Apple wants to stay at the top of the smartphone heap, they had better ride easy.
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