Podcaster Gets the Final App Store Boot as Developer Moves to Android

I wrote earlier about Podcaster, its initial rejection by the App Store and how its developer was working around it. I felt the developer, who was using the "ad hoc" distribution system, which was really designed for beta testing apps, was on shaky ground. And the ground has now shaken.

Apple basically kicked him out of the developer program by removing his ability to provision more devices for his app. As I thought, he was probably violating Apple's terms of service.

Podcaster was banned from the App Store because "it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes." This cause a near-revolt in the blogosphere and among some developers, as it sent the message that you'd better not compete against any Apple functionality or your app will be booted out of the App Store.

Alex Sokirynsky commented on his blog (the post has since been removed; perhaps he is now working with Apple to be restored):

All I wanted was for someone from Apple to contact me and tell me how we can work it out so that I get into the app store. Instead, Apple took the cowards way out by simply disabling features in my developers portal. This seems like a childish move for a company that has been proving such high quality service and products in the past.

A lot of people have speculated that Apple might incorporate features similar to Podcaster in the future. If they do, they will simply be stealing from developers (me in this case)...

I plan to make Podcaster for the Android operating system. At least there, I will be welcomed instead of being walked all over. I will also try to port the app to a jailbroken iPhone.

So a final note to developers. Try to stay out of Apple's grey area. Don't build anything that would compete with Apple. Don't spend too much time before you submit to the app store because it could be all for nothing.

As I said earlier in my post about the G1 intro, the freedom of open source might prove attractive to developers, drawing them away from the iPhone.

Many have labeled Apple's practices as overly protective and secretive, but hey, when you have the hot device, and are still managing to sell million of phones and millions of downloads, you might not be as responsive to negative feedback.

Will Android make Apple wake up to all this negative PR and respond? We'll have to wait and see, but it will take more than just one phone to do it (meaning an explosion of Android devices).