How Feasible Would It Be To Liberate The iPhone From The App Store?
Macworld 2009 will mark the iPhone’s second birthday but just like any toddler, the parental nature of Apple is always looking forward. Sure, Steve Jobs doesn’t have to be burdened with diaper changing and whatnot (disgruntled interns take up that responsibility) but he does baby the iPhone too much and there will be a day when the App Store will be outside of Apple’s parental supervision.
As of now the only ways to load Apps on an iPhone is through the App Store or by Jailbreaking it. Sure, living in bliss of what Apple chooses must be best for you is great, but having to deal with an eventual confrontation with their FairPlay DRM wrapper isn’t my idea of ideal. Developers are also limited in App promotion as they must compete against thousands of other Apps and limited sorting methods. Putting all of this back into the hands of developers and giving end users flexibility would mimic the Mac way of App installation and distribution.
However, the App Store does save users from hunting Apps across an endless sea of junk Software, malicious and subscription nagging Apps Since developers submit their work to Apple for store approval. While some lax evaluations and half brained decisions have been made before, the App Store’s judgment has made of futile for bad developers to litter search results.
The major upside comes for Apple and passes down to you: Software that would exploit the OS and steal user data is stopped dead in its tracks and the original developer given a proverbial bitch slap. This is one of Apple’s biggest defenses in protecting the integrity of OS X. Despite OS X’s stability on desktops, the iPhone optimized build has been cracked to allow unofficial Applications which opens holes for future hackers to exploit although the possibility of that happening any time soon is few and far between.
But someday, Apple will have to face up to allowing any kind of App that doesn’t meet their jurisdiction to run on the iPhone. The App Store can still exist but Apple acting as the caretaker would no longer be the obstacle developers fear in getting their work published. That day will only come when Apple can streamline Application installation to the point where it directly mimics a Mac and when mobile OS X is totally resilient to attacks from Apps masquerading as some obscure video codec or useless accessory to clutter your home screen.
However, that day may never come out of fear from a potential attack happening. The security implementations of both OS X flavors only go so far until user interaction is required. An admin account with a strong password plus a well learned user go a long way in preventing an Estonian Botnet overlord from pwning your box yet applying the same measures to an iPhone make little sense outside of basement modders, security obsessed IT specialists and the common varieties of hardcore Geeks.
The prospect of logging into a phone using a password with characters defeats the simplicity Apple worked hard to design. An obvious tradeoff is minimal deductions in the security department but have you really had the urge to run your iPhone as a web server for your little known Blog?
Taking that into account, the intentions of the App Store seem wholehearted in providing another layer of protection to another potential threat. This puts the App Store and the iPhone hand in hand for downloading third party Apps and I highly doubt Apple would toss it put the window which is good for users and bad for those who bemoan its implementation.
I guess this practice will be common place as Google and Blackberry have taken up copying, er, taking inspiration from Apple in creating a marketplace for Apps. Meanwhile those who use that other mobile OS enjoy the bliss of downloading Apps from any website they please, security risk and all.