In the last few weeks, several high profile iPhone developers have very publicly announced their intention to stop developing for the platform. Many of them cite Apple's very closed, opaque, often arbitrary App approval process. Some cite other things, but the one common thread is that they feel Apple is neglecting and abusing its developer community.
In the last few days, there has been a bit of a backlash against the backlash. This is quite interesting to me, particularly the argument that Apple has nothing to worry about because it's still making GOBS of money from the iPhone. This strikes me as a curious argument point, and definitely gives me a feeling that I've been here before...
One thing that I have yet to see anyone draw iPhone analogies to is the rise and fall of the Palm Pilot. Palm's rise to prominence so long ago (in tech time) was arguably built on its strong developer relations program and engagement with developers. Yes, the Palm Pilot was cool because of the built in synchronization with Outlook, etc, but it was its ability to put third party games and other utilities on it that really took it to the next level. (Sound familiar?) Having been part of that revolution and part of the now present iPhone revolution, I can't help but feel a bit of deja vu. I'm not going to say that there are 100% direct correlations, but it sure feels similar.
The Palm Pilot came out of development like a shot in the dark and quickly became a media darling, attracting both investors and a huge, dedicated developer community. Then, over the course of 2-3 years, Palm really started neglecting its developer community to the degree that developers started fleeing to other platforms (Symbian, WindowsMoble, etc.) Again, does this sound familiar?
I certainly won't dispute the fact that Palm had other problems besides its neglect for developers, but having been one of those developers, it certainly didn't help. And Palm kept making money for quite a while after that.
So this brings us back to Apple. Will they suffer the same fate as Palm? I have no idea. Are there differences between the two company histories? Indisputably. But like I said earlier, this sure feels familiar to me. Yes, Apple is still making money. Yes, Apple will continue making GOBS of money for the foreseeable future, but then again, so did Palm.