There's an app for that

The iPhone is, by any measure, a success for Apple. It has gone from being a newcomer in the industry, to being one of the most well-regarded mobile phones in the public consciousness, garnering a large army of fans along the way. While many view it as an inferior mobile phone to others on the market, the iPhone has gone from strength to strength, in all three of its incarnations (the iPhone, iPhone 3g and iPhone 3GS). There are undoubtedly many reasons for that success, but one of the most important ones, according to both fans and mobile critics, is the Apple App Store.

Before the iPhone, mobile apps were available, but what the iPhone did, which was unlike any other phone on the market at that time, was to provide a centralised store, for the user to buy and download apps, on the device itself. Previously, with operating systems such as Windows Mobile and Symbian, the user would have to download the installer file for whatever app they wanted onto their PC, and then transfer it across to the phone, before installing it.

With the iPhone, that step was removed (although users can still do it that way if they prefer), so that downloading and installing an app is reduced down to a simple, one-step process.

This ease of use, which Apple fans have always said is one of the most important features of Apple hardware, is what has made the App Store such a rousing success, and it is undoubtedly the reason why, in February, the App Store reached the '10 billion downloads' milestone (although it should be noted that the most downloaded mobile app in history is Opera Mini, which isn't available on the iPhone).

However, despite the success of the App Store, it hasn't been without criticism, with two things in particular being noted by critics as particularly putting a tarnish on the iPhone's sheen. The first is centred around how the iPhone installs apps from the App Store; more specifically, it is centred around the fact that, once a user has updated an app to a newer version, if that newer version doesn't work as described, the user cannot then downgrade, or roll back their install, to an earlier version of the app. Apple's only response to this is that they always recommend people use the latest versions of software, without reference to the fact that they don't let users do anything else.

There is one other area, though, which has garnered even more criticism than the user being unable to uninstall software updates, and that is centred around the approval process for the App Store. This was highlighted recently, by an app being pulled from the store, on the grounds of decency and taste. The developer contacted Apple, and it seemed that Apple's rules for approval of iPhone apps had become more draconian. Those rules included such points as no swimwear, no skin, no silhouettes of the female body, nothing that can be viewed as sexually suggestive or arousing, and nothing that can imply adult content.

The issue over the approval process also became complicated by the fact that, despite the above rules, many apps still remain in the App Store which do contain the content that Apple has described as being unwelcome in their store. The difference is that the remaining apps are by big name publishers such as Sports Illustrated, and Apple views these as acceptable, because they are by a well-known publisher, which has led many to question whether their App Store approval process is designed around sensible content guidelines, or is geared towards big businesses, not third party developers.

In either case, the App Store's image has been slightly tarnished by this ongoing situation, although it will not be enough to change the central fact: that the iPhone App Store was, and remains, one of the most important innovations in the mobile world for a very long time.