Rigid Control Of iPhone Apps

The little downloadable programs known as iPhone apps have made Apple's iPhone hugely popular in North America and around the world. These applications allow users to perform all sorts of tasks, and to program their phones as they wish.

They aren't just limited to Apple's own programs for their iPhone downloads either; other developers can create applications, and if Apple approves them, it places them in its online store.

Users supposedly have access to anything they need on their phone, choosing both from free apps or those that come at a cost.

All is not roses with the iPhone apps, however. Many people have objected to the way Apple exerts such rigid control over what they are allowed to download. They frequently liken it to a company producing a computer but dictating which programs they are and aren't allowed to use on it, which you just don't see happening.

Because of this, perhaps ten percent of iPhone users have performed iPhone hacks, devising workarounds against the guards that prevent them from downloading applications Apple hasn't authorized.

Whatever people's reasons for wanting to hack their phones and alter how iPhone apps work, the Copyright Office must consider them all before it finally rules. Some people want the right to use their phone with someone other than the "approved" carrier, as they can with other cell phones.

Others want to engage in iPhone hacks that allow them to use applications that work much better or have different features than those Apple approves of, and some simply want to break what appears to be Apple's monopoly on use and access.

Whatever the final decision on these matters, 2010 will be an important year for iPhone users.

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Developing A User Friendly iPhone App

Creating successful iPhone downloads involves much more than just writing a program, no matter how good that program is. This is what Brook Lenox teaches on his www.howtomakeiphoneapps.com website.

He's had experience both in creating these applications and marketing them, and he has recognized that marketing your iPhone app is just as important as designing it in the first place.

It's not going to work if you just create the thing and do nothing to promote it. You need both sides of the equation to get a good result.

Two other factors in developing an iPhone app involve both the appearance of the interface and how you infuse good marketing principles right into its design. When it comes to appearance, be sure the graphics are top notch and sharp, and don't look like they were designed by an amateur.

The way the app is used should be easy and intuitive to the users, not requiring unnecessary or confusing steps. And before submitting your program to Apple, research the best keywords to assign to it during the submission process.

Once your iPhone app has been accepted and placed in the App Store, then the real marketing begins. This involves everything from deciding on the price of your app, to how you will track the results of well-placed ads or good reviews.

Lenox advises having both a free version of your app, as well as a paid one with more features. Giving your potential clients a chance to try out the application before buying is a great strategy.

As much care should be applied to marketing your app as to marketing any other type of product. If you do it well, your application will experience success.

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Customers Hacking iPhone Application Controls

It's not that people do an iPhone 3G unlock just because they can, although that's undoubtedly a big draw for some tech-savvy users. Hacking an iPhone is perceived by some people as a defense against Apple's own monopolistic tendencies.

In fact, when Apple demands that the Copyright Office make it illegal for anyone to tamper with its iPhone application controls, these people see it as proof that the company is trying to exert unacceptable restrictions over what they do with the property they've bought.

People who advocate iPhone hacking consider the phone to be analogous to a computer that anyone can purchase. No computer manufacturer attempts to dictate what programs users can or can't use on their equipment once they've bought it.

Individual hackers and those who place their own apps in the online store at www.cydia.com believe they are working against Apple's unwarranted monopoly. Apple's claim that it alone can accept or reject an iPhone application is seen simply as tyrannical.

Apple and AT&T, which is the company that carries the iPhone in the United States, also seem to be working hand-in-glove, which people doing iPhone hacks also use as justification for what they do.

They cite how Apple sometimes appears to reject an iPhone application mainly because it might affect AT&T's profits or controls.

As far as the hackers are concerned, this is monopolistic behavior that takes no thought for Apple's actual customers, and it only increases the need for customers to hack the iPhone and take a little control of the devices they own.

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Restricting iPhone Development To Apple

In Apple's current struggle to restrict all iPhone development for itself, some might look at the history of the iPhone over the past three years and raise a skeptical eyebrow.

The very first iPhone release in 2007 featured a phone with certain programs on it, included by Apple, and no capacity to download others. But even at that time, people worked around those restrictions and created hacks that opened the phone to downloading of small applications, resulting in Apple developing the iPhone 3G, which officially did the same thing.

But many iPhone users think that in its insistence on keeping all iPhone development to itself, Apple has become arbitrary and controlling when it comes to the apps it rejects for its store.

It refuses to explain why apps are rejected, and even when it accepts an application, it can be weeks or even months before it appears in the store. As a result, those willing to do an iPhone hack have turned to another online store called Cydia. This site, operated by Jay Freeman, actually developed out of the earliest efforts to hack the original iPhone.

Those who jailbreak iPhone controls to allow downloading of non-Apple-authorized apps are not convinced the company's primary motivation is its customers' convenience and satisfaction.

Given that so many of Apple's moves appear designed to protect the profits and controls of its main American carrier, AT&T, many users think iPhone development is tailored to convenience the pocketbooks of others rather than their own usage.

As long as they perceive things this way, it's very likely that an application store like Cydia will continue to flourish.

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Doubts About Some iPhone Reviews

In the same way that reviews of most consumer products have come into question over the years, iPhone reviews have begun to experience problems as well. One of the features of Apple's online store for approved iPhone downloads is that people who have already downloaded and used the apps can write reviews and give them a rating.

But gradually, questions have come up about how genuine those reviews actually are. Was it possible that reviewers were somehow being paid or influenced to write good reviews by the companies or developers who had created the apps?

When Jeff Bertolucci did some research into iPhone app reviews in the app downloading store, he found that even with the safeguards Apple had tried to put in place to prevent the likelihood of deliberately skewed reviews, it was still too easy to slide around them.

Nick Santilli, who writes for www.theappleblog.com, told Bertolucci that it made more sense to talk to people on Twitter or in other user-friendly sites, to get genuine iPhone reviews from people who have actually used the apps. Many people simply don't think reviews at the site itself can be trusted.

Between new federal regulations requiring disclosure of payments for writing reviews, and the ability for developers to respond to iPhone reviews with accurate information, Bertolucci still thinks it's a good idea to let the reviewing continue at the App Store.

Certainly, in the midst of a bunch of rave reviews made for hire, a couple of negative ones will stand out and make the potential user take notice.

The new regulations, instituted in December of 2009, will help to reduce reviews written for a payment, and it's possible now that users may actually glean some accurate information from them.

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A Goldmine Of iPhone 3G Apps

Even though the iPhone 3GS emerged just a year after the 3G version, the iPhone 3G apps are not likely to become obsolete any time soon. Once a phone emerged for which people could write applications that others could download, it was like the gold rush was on.

Users eagerly hunted for useful or enjoyable iPhone downloads, and creators were more than eager to provide them. This meant that when the 3GS came out in 2009, it inherited a vast gold mine of applications that work on both the 3G and the newer iPhone version.

There are two basic types of iPhone 3G apps; those acquired for free and those that cost something. Someone might wonder why anyone would provide iPhone downloads for free, but many people believe in shareware, while even some corporations like to provide service programs.

Some of the countless free and very useful apps are programs like "Evernote," which allows students to take, store and review class notes, or "eReader," which enables people to read books on the iPhone.

The very expensive iPhone 3G apps are the exception rather than the rule. For the most part, those that are free or inexpensive predominate when someone looks in the App Store for something useful.

This is probably because many of the applications are designed to do just a few related tasks. But the medical, business or security applications demonstrate just how powerful these apps can get.

Not only that, they may be showing users how diverse and useful the iPhone itself will become in the future.

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