macnn
10/30/2008, 4:35pm, EDT
Thursday, October 30th
App store rules prohibit Opera Mini for iPhone
iPhone owners should not expect to see the Opera web browser on the device anytime soon, says Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, CEO of the company. Von Tetzschner notes that while engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini for iPhones, Apple is blocking release through the App Store, due its competition with the built-in Safari browser. Opera Mini is used frequently on other smartphones, and speeds up mobile browsing by delivering stripped-down versions of websites.
Apple has received sharp criticism for blocking anything from the App Store which may be perceived as threatening dominance. Earlier this year the company denied MailWrangler, an app supporting simultaneous Gmail accounts, and Podcaster, software for receiving podcasts while mobile. While iPhones were unable to run mobile podcast downloads at the time, Apple is rumored to be incorporating the technology for its v2.2 firmware update. Podcasts would be accessed through the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store option.
Filed under: iPhone, software
Other story tags: App Store, browsers, Opera
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OK...
so there's no reason to have a second Mail or browser app, but having 56 different type of to-do lists and organizers is OK?
Anti-Competitive
This is why I have not bought an iPhone, and from the looks of it, I may not. Apple is becoming very anti-competitive, and I think it is about time someone like Opera sued them. This is also the reason I am seriously looking at Linux as my desktop, Apple has become the Redmond of the south.
Jailbreak
They should release on Cydia for the jailbroken iPhone market, if they already have a stable release. Don't let the app store rejection keep you down!
monopoly?
is Apple becoming MS and not allowing other software on it's devices? come on Apple I Love your products but choice is great too..
Read The SDK
If they would have read the SDK, they would not have wasted their time with the Opera Browser.
Opera can make their own phone to put it on if that is what they want. Not all iPhone users want their $hit browser on our iPhones. Hell, we don't use that piece of $hit browser on our desktops either.
Sue, sue, sue... you can't force a company to put something on their product they don't want.
What's next, sueing McDonald's for not allowing Burger King to sell their Whoppers at all McDonald's world-wide?
Safari compatibility...
...is so rough with so many sites this is a mixed blessing - I wish one didn't need 5 browsers however it seems the way of the web... If Apple can offer a more compatible browser (java, flash, file uploads) then I wouldn't care so much, although I understand some of the issues may be Microsoft driven proprietary standards or security limitations... Welcome to the wild west web...
not so fast
neither mailwrangler or podcaster were rejected "due to [their] competition with the built-in [apps]". It was pretty clear, in fact, that they were rejected for if you read the whole letter.
Here's the complete text another developer posted on his blog:
Hi [Geopher Developer],
Your application, Geopher Lite, cannot be posted to the App Store because it violates section 3.3.5 of the iPhone SDK Agreement; “Applications must comply with the Human Interface Guidelines and other Documentation provided by Apple.”
Geopher Lite duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Safari without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. The app should launch Safari when the “Go!” and “Log” buttons are selected, instead of navigating within the app.
As we can clearly see, the problem is not in duplicating functionality, it is doing so "without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion" that is the problem.
F**K APPLE
They are fascist pieces os $hit. I will bury those cocaroaches....
Stupid reporters
It's nothing to do with competition, it's about UI!!! Wake up, MacNN!
the SDK also says
the SDK also won't allow any app to execute other code. This is what web browsers do all day. They execute other code like HTML, XML, JAVA and so on. So we'll never see another browser on the iPhone.
I consider this more of a security problem then anything else unless you can prove Apple just doesn't want competition?