App Rejections

Google Voice, probably the single highest-profile app-rejection of all time – the app that sparked a US Government inquiry into Apple’s business practices – is back:

we’re excited to introduce the Google Voice web app for the iPhone and Palm WebOS devices. This HTML5 application provides you with a fast and versatile mobile experience for Google Voice because it uses the latest advancements in web technologies.

Apple’s two-edged sword

Of course, it’s still “REJECTED” because Apple refused to let Google provide this app via the App Store. This is merely a clever technical solution – using the iPhone’s ability to bookmark websites – to distribute the app by other means.

There’s two disadvantages for Google here, neither of which I think really bothers them:

1. They don’t appear in the App Store; no free promotion that way
2. They can’t write the app in C, C++, or Objective-C; it has to be written as a web-app

But there’s two major advantages too, and ironically one of those was part of Apple’s original intent for iPhone apps (but Apple themselves have destroyed this):

1. The app is totally outside Apple’s control, and is not required – legally or practically – to obey *any* of Apple’s edicts
2. The app can be split into ultiple icons on the Dashboard

In more detail, that last point…

Personally, I think this is one of the great under-recognized issues with the App Store today: apps are only allowed a single icon, which must be a single self-contained app.

Apple’s own design guidelines explain that each App should:

• Start immediately, or very fast (Apple actually automatically crashes any app that takes more than 10 seconds to startup!)
• Perform one well-defined and small piece of functionality
• Terminate immediately (again, Apple automatically kills any app that is slow to quit)

In their docs, Apple explains that the user should be given the impression NOT of a desktop, with applications, but of a single mega-application where each icon is like clicking an internal menu: small, very fast, individual features.

This is a really nice idea, and explains a lot of the design decisions Apple made with their own apps and with the restrictions on developers.

But … just try submitting your iPhone app to the App Store in multiple pieces, each of which only performs “part of” the app. Good luck!

With the web-app distribution, though, Google has been able to do precisely that:

For quick access to the most important features like “Dialer”, “Compose SMS”, “Inbox” or “Contacts,” you can add shortcuts to your iPhone home screen or Palm Launcher — so cheap calls and messaging will be just a single click away.

Part of Apple’s dream, but not a reality for the majority of iPhone developers.

Last week, some Google staff asked me what I – personally – would do to make the Nexus One competitive with the iPhone. I think this is one of those things: find the chinks in Apple’s usability and user-centric design, the cracks that Apple has left wide open, and exploit them. Make Android do those few things 10 times better…