The AppStore would turn into a market where a few big developers gain the trust of iPhone users, and users will be reluctant to try anything new because it could completely annihilate their phone. That’s not the world I want to live in as a consumer. I want to be able to install an application with some degree of faith that the absolute junk was already weeded out.
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The big development firms might find the process to be restricting because they have both the knowledge and the time to properly test their applications before submitting the programs they create for review, but, I’m not all that confident that the get rich over night crowd has the skill set to do that. Some might, but I bet a large majority of them don’t. The restrictions aren’t in place because of the Facebooks or the Rogue Ameoba’s of the world, they’re in place for us, the consumer, who wants a little assurance that a flashlight application won’t make their phone unstable, and that fart applications actually make fart noises. It’s not always about developers, and sometimes, just sometimes, it’s about consumers having devices that work.
Joshua is right about the approval process needing to keep apps that crash phones out of the App Store. That’s a good thing. But having Apple police what types of apps customers can use is a totally different issue. I’m fine with Apple keeping malicious code out of the App Store, but I’m not sure the company needs to continue to be the moral police for people.
At the very least, Apple needs to clarify and simplify their requirements, and be far more transparent and fast-moving when it comes to dealing with rejections, or open platforms like the Android Market will continue to attract customers and developers alike.