Sorry, another iPhone related post 
Anyways, I’ve spotted a bit of a flaw in the iPhone App Store.
The App Store is the only way you can legally develop and distribute apps for the iPhone and you have to publish them via Apple. This introduces a huge amount of convenience, but you also lose a lot of control.
Eg, suppose you (or your customers) spot a critical bug in your app? You may be able to fix it within a few hours, but how long before Apple get it out on to the App Store and subsequently out onto your customers’ devices?
A couple of examples. Cube Runner is a great game I’ve seen on other people’s iPhones, but I can’t get it - it’s been withdrawn from the App Store. I think the developer found an issue and wanted Apple to pull it rather than leave the buggy one hanging. And the slowness of Apple means we don’t have the update.
Another example is a diet tracking app that comes with a “do not install because it’s broken and Apple haven’t updated it in the store with my fix” message.
Both developers are exposed to excessive reputational risk - I’m not sure I’d want to do the same if I was a developer. But then, there’s no other (legal) way.
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This is a big topic of discussion on some of the mac dev lists I’m on. One of the problem seems to be that when you submit an update the appstore updates instantly, then the app sits in Infinite Loop for a week or so whilst they test it (or something). A few people have been caught out already releasing bug fixes and new versions which update the site but not the downloadable package. Hence the ‘don’t download this’ comments, I guess.
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