Subscribe Feed (RSS)Fat Lady Sings for iPhone Opera
October 31st, 2008 by Connor Byrne | Filed under News, iPhone.
I’ll admit up front that we’ve go nothing more to add to the “Opera denied entry to the App Store” story than the above headline, but it would be remiss of us not to at least give it a quick mention. Besides, having nothing extra to add doesn’t seem to stop anyone else. Take Ian Betteridge, for example. (I’m sure I recognise the name but I’m buggered if I can remember where from.) In his Technovia blog he writes:
“And please, don’t anyone try and tell me that this should be expected, and Apple is within its rights blah blah blah. If someone is too stupid to see that stifling competition is a bad idea, then frankly I don’t have much time for their opinion.”
Now technically, as has been pointed out elsewhere, whatever the real reason, it’s likely that the at least in the official rejection e-mail, Opera fell foul of Apple’s “no interpreting code” dictate. So, yes, it should be expected. We highlighted the same potential problem a few days ago when we took a look at the Cube FPS Engine. There are probably good security — as well as performance — reasons for the ban. It still sucks, but at least Apple are upfront about it.
But the bigger question is, do we actually need another browser on the iPhone? Sure, choice is usually a good thing, but Mobile Safari’s actually pretty damn good and you have to wonder how well Opera — or any other 3rd party browser for that matter — would be able to integrate with the current crop of apps which make use of it.
[...] iPhods.com wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWe highlighted the same potential problem a few days ago when we took a look at the Cube FPS Engine. There are probably good security — as well as performance — reasons for the ban. It still sucks, but at least Apple are upfront about … [...]
You probably remember me from my stint on MacUser – I was there for eight years, up until about five years ago.
Whether we “need” another browser on the iPhone shouldn’t be Apple’s choice to make: it should be the consumer’s. After all, by the same criteria, we don’t “need” another browser on the Mac – Safari is pretty good on their too.
The real question is whether we want Apple to make these decisions for us. Do we want to abdicate personal responsibility for how we use our phones, in favour of a paternalistic Big Brother deciding for us?
Hi, Ian. I certainly remember you from MacUser, and I know Connor used to buy it. (Although I’m beginning to wonder if he ever read it…)
I guess the question is whether _Apple_ thinks we “need” another browser on the iPhone. They’ve always been kind of Big Brother — or possibly “benevolent dictator” — but maybe this is one “it’s for your own good” too far.
Of course, things might be different if they’d just be a little more open, but as I’m sure you know better than most, the chances of that are slim at best.
[...] confusion continues to surround Opera’s browser for the iPhone. Maybe, as we reported, it’s been submitted to Apple and rejected. Or maybe not. Or maybe. We’ll be following [...]