Transmit for iOS gets its iCloud Drive back
What’s new in Transmit for iOS 1.1.2:
Added back, at Apple’s request, the ability to “Send” files to other destinations including “iCloud Drive”
Credit to Apple for getting this one sorted quickly, and dealing with one of the most stupid App Store decisions in recent memory. However, Apple really needs to rapidly nail down what is and isn’t allowed on iOS 8, get the information out there in a transparent manner (“We’ll know it when we see it” is not good enough when a dev’s livelihood is at stake), communicate effectively, and apply any rules consistently.
I don’t really think it’s possible for Apple to have clear rules. Even just specifying what constitutes “pornography” in Apple’s mind is probably impossible. In the end, it’ll always come down to a human making a subjective decision about this stuff.
I think the only real solution is to allow developers to publish iOS apps outside of the App Store. That way, developers who get rejected at least have another avenue of selling their apps, and don’t have to throw away a year’s work due to Apple’s capriciousness.
I agree. And really there’s no excuse. Apple could easily add the kind of switch that’s in OS X, perhaps even defaulting to installation from the App Store alone. If a user turns off that setting, they would be strongly warned about security issues and that if their iPhone all goes horribly wrong, Apple accepts zero liability. Click. Install from anywhere.
That said, what I hear from devs is that would only really be a route from those with a niche product that would sell anyway, or for apps/games not really wanting to make money. Without an App Store promo placing, almost nothing makes any money now. Lucky Frame’s done with games, and Nightmare Cooperative selling only 7000 copies rather sums things up. I know Mr. Particle-Man also didn’t fare well after being ignored by Apple, despite getting excellent reviews.
Yeah, I think a switch that defaults to only allowing App Store apps would be perfectly acceptable. Even requiring developers to sign their non-App-Store apps with an Apple-supplied certificate would be okay in my mind, so that Apple could remote-kill certificates used to sign clearly malicious code.
As for how well these apps would sell: I think it’s difficult to say, because we don’t know what kinds of apps developers would come up with if they weren’t restricted by Apple’s rules. I think one of the reasons why apps in the App Store don’t sell too well on average is because there’s almost no way for individual apps to differentiate themselves. Apple’s rules are so restrictive that the best developers all seem to focus on a narrow range of app genres that have a high probability of not causing any problems with Apple — text editors, Twitter clients, Podcast clients, stuff like that. And, of course, games.
In a sea of text editors, you either need to be a prominent person in the Mac market already to get traction with your own personal new text editor app, or you need Apple’s help.
But if developers could do anything they wanted, I think some of these apps would be so compelling that they would reach an audience even without Apple’s help.
Here’s an idea. What if somebody would come up with a HyperCard-type app for iPads, where iPad owners could easily create their own simple database-backed interactive iPad apps, and distribute them to each other? Maybe even in an in-app app store? You install iPadCard, click on “find iPadCard apps”, download the “Dentist Manager” app, and make changes to it so it fits how your particular dental practice works.
iPads are already a good match for many vertical markets, and this would be a perfect way of developing, marketing, and selling tools for these vertical markets.
But developing something like this is hard, and Investing a lot of time into an app like that is out of the question, because it violates so many App Store rules that you’d be crazy to think that you could get it published. But how many people would love to have something like that on their iPads? How many people would *buy* an iPad just for something like that? I don’t think you’d need Apple’s help to get traction for such a tool.