Apple's AppStore closes in on $500m in software sales

Apple offered the same reasons for not opening its developer platform at once, and now for vetoing certain applications, and in many ways its justifications are reasonable. But the fact remains that the perception of the most active mobile web user base is that Apple is restrictive, while on a Nokia device, anything goes. Whether this is true or not, Apple has made its success on perception more than reality – the notion that the iPhone is a technological frontrunner, for example – and it will make its failures in the same way, far more than a less flashily marketed, and less closely observed, vendor like Nokia.

Nokia never manages to generate the level of headlines that Apple does, even though the forthcoming Tube has gained quite a high profile, but it is scoring points with developers because of its more open applications policy, and consumers are starting to notice that they have greater choice and fewer restrictions on a Nokia mediaphone than an iPhone.

Although Apple released a developers’ kit earlier this year and attracted huge numbers of programs to its AppStore, launched with the 3G iPhone, it is still showing many signs of control freakery, which are starting to annoy users and even provoked criticism from the Washington Post. So let's take a look at three of the applications pulled from the store.

Net Don't Share

One of these was NetShare, and the reason for Apple’s hostility is obvious – it effectively turns the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. However, such facilities are becoming wildly popular on mobile phones, and many major operators have had, reluctantly, to support them, in order not to lose customers. Apple – or more likely, its carrier partners, which stand to lose business for their Wi-Fi / broadband services - have not yet learned this lesson.

The second vetoed app was ‘I Am Rich’ – which was jokily priced at $999, and was presumably removed because some consumers didn’t realize they actually could be charged the fee if they clicked.

The removal of the third is less easy to explain – BoxOffice lets customers look for and buy movie tickets. The only obvious reason was that, in the US, it undercut a ticketing service from iPhone carrier AT&T. This highlights the downside of Apple’s old-fashioned exclusive and closed deals with operators – without the freedom to work with other carriers, it has to go along with the cellco’s wishes even if these reduce the effectiveness of its own AppStore.

Nokia’s huge market share and wide range of devices mean it has far greater power over the carriers, to the extent that it has launched its own Ovi range of web services, which can compete directly with the operators’ own internet offerings.

Nokia has no restrictions on what can be downloaded to its smartphones – this is one of the many reasons why it is regarded with suspicion by US mobile operators, but something that its carrier partners in Europe accept. For instance, Nokia users can download Joikusoft, an app that turns the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot and also allows it to share the connection with multiple devices.

Some carriers that do not have iPhone deals are looking to advertise this openness more aggressively in order to win subscribers from iPhone rivals like O2 in the UK, a marketing ploy that will also benefit Nokia. Nokia says Apple has raised awareness of what a smartphone can do, but now users are looking for more open platforms without carrier tie-ins.

Music for librarians

A forthcoming Apple software update could enable iPhone and iPod Touch users to access their home computer's entire iTunes media library remotely without traditional synchronization, according to a new patent filing uncovered by AppleInsider.

The 24-page filing notes that at present, downloading media items from a computer to a media player is a time consuming process limited by the device's storage capacity. But new versions of iTunes and the iPhone software propose to eliminate the problem by synchronizing only the metadata, not the content itself, from iTunes to the device. The metadata would translate on iPhones and iPods as ‘virtual media items’ representing playlists, videos, photos and mobile games. Instead of accessing the files directly from the device, the iPhone or iPod would employ a wired, Wi-Fi or cellular connection to access and retrieve the media items from a user's Mac or PC.

"As a result, the user perceives that the virtual media items may be available on [the media player]," the Apple filing notes. "In this manner, the virtual capacity of an electronic device may be increased."

Apple still plans to roll out the iPhone 3G in 70 countries by the end of the year, with 20 new territories to come onstream on August 22. Among these will be Telefonica, launching in eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay. Bharti and Vodafone should go live in India by the end of August.

Eastern Europe is another hotbed - O2 is adding the Czech Republic, TeliaSonera subsidiary EMT will launch in Estonia, Orange and Era will both offer the iPhone in Poland and Orange also in Romania, and T-Mobile will launch in Hungary. Further afield, Globe Telecom is going live in the Philippines, while Singapore is also expected to get the iPhone.

Copyright © 2008, Faultline

Faultline is published by Rethink Research, a London-based publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter is an assessment of the impact of the week's events in the world of digital media. Faultline is where media meets technology. Subscription details here.