Apple’s App Store: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Part 1)

Last June, Apple cut the ribbon to its brand new App Store. Now, iPhone users and iPod Touch users can purchase third-party software with ease, either through a Wi-Fi connection on the device, or through iTunes on a personal computer. Apple's App Store provides easy access to many different types of applications offered at a range of prices, from free to about $500.

The great thing about the App Store is that creative developers now have a chance to do what they do best and write incredible software for a popular mobile device. Apple has released a very intuitive API that allows developers to build applications with greater speed and detail, providing the user with a quality product. Apple sets up developers with all of this and asks only for 30% of the sales in return. The developers keep the other 70%.

This simple developers' program is great for both sides. Developers are able to create incredible apps on a great new device, while Apple is able to sit back and watch its iPhones increase in value as new apps are created. Seems fairly straightforward, right? Think this is a good fit for you? Well, it is - but only if you're a big-name developer who is willing to cooperate with Apple. For those developers who create groundbreaking, game-changing applications, this program is still not for you.

Apple has done many things right, but the company has not done all it can do. For now, Apple has not made it possible for developers to create apps with push notifications or background processes. What does this mean? Third parties cannot produce an instant-message client, specific email (like gmail) client, or any kind of app that would make use of background functionality. This is unfortunate since Pandora would be much more popular if it could be run in the background.

The same is true for the AIM client. What good is AIM if you can't do anything else while signed on? Would you use AIM on a computer if you could only use that application and nothing else? Yes? Well, probably not as much as if AIM could be run in the background.

Editor's Note: Part 2 of this story will appear next week.