App Developer Oppression?

2:40 PM -- Ahead of this week's announcement about the iPad 2, the iPhone 5, the 30th Century Mac or whatever Steve Jobs has in store for us, I wonder: Is writing apps for Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iOS still the best deal going? Does developing apps for carrier networks directly have any more appeal now than it did a year ago?

Big Bob McGarvey summarized a wave of recent thoughts about Apple and its revenue-sharing arrangements with content producers and developers. In general, people think Apple's greedy for wanting a big cut of revenues generated via its App Store.

I replied that I think Apple is being fair. They invented a platform. They have a clear value proposition to consumers, and consumers continue to buy Apple products. Developers are presented with a clear cost of doing business, and it either turns them off or helps their business grow.

But I wonder: What can AT&T and other carriers who are courting developers do to appeal to the handful of publishers and content producers that are angry at Apple for, well, acting like a for-profit, publicly held company?



— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading