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By Dan Moren for Macworld
Can Apple handle the great responsibility that is the App Store?
Oftentimes, your biggest strengths are also your biggest vulnerabilities. That’s just as true for Apple as it is for anyone else.
While the iPhone is surely the product that catapulted the Cupertino-based company into its meteoric rise, you could make the argument that it would not have hit the stratosphere without the ecosystem surrounding the device—in particular, the App Store. It doesn’t seem farfetched to say that the success of the app ecosystem on iOS is beyond what even Apple likely expected, leaving the company to play catch-up to its breakout hit.
And even as the “there’s an app for that” ethos became the hallmark of the smartphone era, the App Store has remained one of Apple’s biggest challenges, both in terms of its relationships with competitors and those with developers. Within the last year or two, those challenges have gotten even more prominent, putting a ding in the reputation of a company that has otherwise largely managed to convey an image of lofty idealism.
What’s to be done about the App Store? Can it be fixed? Or is it operating just the way Apple intends?