TUAW has a great post up, with an interview of Andrew Welch, CEO of Ambrosia Software, makers of the popular iToner ringtone-making software for the Mac and iPhone.
Welch is very eloquent as well as extremely rational and balanced in his views on the latest 1.1.1 update (and how it has broken iToner), and developing for Apple’s closed platforms generally. There’s no feeling that any of his thoughts are shaped by bitterness over the recent update. He just offers a realistic and insightful view on some subjects that are of great interest while 3rd party apps remain ‘broken’ for the time being.
Here’s one example of his thoughts when asked about whether he feels the user area of the iPHone should ‘belong to the user’:
Absolutely. Apple should no more be controlling what ringtones I want to use than they should be controlling what music I can listen to, or what photos I can look at.
Here’s a good analogy, I think. Apple came out with their online store, and they charged for music. They said "We know you can get music from elsewhere, but we’re going to make the user experience so good that you’ll want to get it from us." And guess what? They were right, it worked!
The tack they are taking with the ringtones, though, is not "We’ll provide such great ringtones that you’ll want to buy from us" but rather "This is all you’re ever going to be able to use, too bad if you want to use something else." I think they took a winning formula, and got it entirely backwards.
Great analogy, and he’s spot-on with his views on all aspects of these subjects it seems to me.
The interview is well worth a read. Check it out at:
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