[kermitology]

I'm sure that this post will fall on deaf ears but here goes anyways.

I'll preface this by mentioning that I'm not an Apple booster by any means. I own a Dell laptop that I adore, and an iMac. I have two iPhone's technically, one is provided by my company, the other I bought as the first generation, but I've given it to my girlfriend. I maintain that Apple is inherently an evil company. I have no interest in buying the iPad at the moment, but I'm very interested in the Microsoft Courier. I also have worked as an iPhone app developer for the past year and a bit on an application that won the WWDC 2009 Best 3.0 Beta application.

This is a post that is about the closed system and a bit of a defence of it.

I think that Apple's decision to make the iPhone a closed system is a brilliant strategy. The applications being sandboxed is a terrific security protocol, and the concept of the application review system is also a great idea. First the sandboxing. This restriction of apps from accessing the filesystem outside of their own sandbox is a big security measure. While it limits the application (and it doesn't really limit it that much), it also limits malicious code from running wild. Apple controlling the applications also fits into this mould of security. Each and every application is reviewed by Apple to ensure that the code does not contain anything that can harm the operating system, file system, or can be used as a known exploit.

Where Apple has it wrong in the application review system is where they reject applications that they don't like for reasons that they determine to be of risk to them, not their users. They're also evil in the sheer amount of money that they derive from the app store. It's frankly obscene in my opinion.

As a developer however, I prefer the app store model to the android model. First and foremost the IDE and SDK that you have access to is second to none. I've been doing software development for more than 7 years and I have never come across an IDE that is so streamlined, and an SDK that is so powerful. I easily prefer Cocoa to Java and C/C++ even though the syntax is bizarre. iPhone app development is a lot of fun.

Make no mistake, for what the iPad DOES and is typically going to be used for, you don't need it to be an open system. And given the popularity that the device and similar devices (iPhone/iPod Touch) security is a huge deal to Apple. They don't have the same worry with OS X because Microsoft already dominates the market, but in the smartphone world, they have to be extremely careful.