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Much ado about nothing

Joe Hewitt and the iPhone Facebook app

So, Joe Hewitt is terminating his involvement in the development of Facebook’s iPhone app. Hmmmm …

Joe Hewitt in August of this year:

I’d like to add my voice to the stream of complaints about the iPhone App Store, but before I say anything critical, I have to promise one thing. No matter how annoyed I get, I will not stop developing for Apple’s platforms or using Apple’s products as long as they continue to produce the best stuff on the market. I never forget how deeply Apple cares about making their users happy, and that counts more than how they treat their developers. Besides, when I have a problem with a friend, I don’t threaten to boycott our friendship until they change, so I’m not going to do that to Apple either.

Sounds like Mr. Hewitt spoke a little rashly not so many months ago. Of course it could also be him speaking rashly now, as many commenters are suggesting – i.e. that this is not such a big event considering there are plenty of other programmers at FB that can and, I am assuming, will, take up development of FB’s iPhone app and so, for Mr. Hewitt to cease his involvement in the development of the Facebook app is not the daring, courageous and iconoclast’s statement that all of the headlines are making it out to be.

So, then, maybe much ado about nothing. That Joe Hewitt has strong opinions about how Apple is running its app store is fine. That the possibility exists that his strongly held opinions led him to quit his involvement in the development of the Facebook iPhone app is fine as well. But, it’s a little disingenuous of anyone – Mr. Hewitt, TechCrunch, et al. – to infer that this is much of a milestone or that this makes one hill of beans worth of difference to the many independent iPhone app developers out there who, given that independence, cannot simply cease development of their, sometimes, one money making iPhone app based purely on their sense of right and wrong. It’s not as if Facebook would allow the the access to their site of the millions of iPhone users out there to be in any way degraded. That would be an unwise course to take and I doubt that it is a course that will taken. Joe Hewitt has ceased his involvement in the development of the Facebook app for the iPhone: ho, hum.

This isn’t news, just slightly interesting information. It may be good for him but it doesn’t mean a thing for anyone else.

11 November 2009 | No comments yet |

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