Mr Gruber:

And, most importantly, Apple needs to do a better job emphasizing what HTML5 mobile web apps are capable of, and that such apps are completely open for both developers and users. To use the walled garden metaphor, Apple needs to make more people aware that right across the street from the App Store’s beautiful but tightly controlled and regulated walled garden, there’s a very nice public park, open to everyone.

Last night I spent far too much time perusing the iPad app store on my iPad, as it was finally made available in the UK recently. It took me until now to get round to using the killer application for my new toy.

Two things struck me, they are obvious:

1. The apps are much more expensive than the iPhone predecessors. This is to be expected and is a good sign that developers are getting real about the amount of time, effort and expense that goes into creating good software. (I am not an Objective-C developer, but I have written lots of software for my daily bread).
2. There is a much healthier crop of ‘business’ and ‘productivity’ apps than I expected. I was really encouraged by what developers had come up with.

My current dilemma is that I have a long business trip coming up. Do I risk it and just take my iPad and bluetooth keyboard or do I take my trusty MacBook Pro?

In the end I didn’t buy any apps, although I did download a bunch of free ones. Having really only used the built in apps to date, I feel I need to use the free ones for a while to work out what I am going to need and what features are nice-but-not-needed. I was also a little non-plussed by the lack of choice. Apps for the iPhone are far more numerous and therefore much more varied. The top 10 highest grossing apps for iPad were mainly games – not what I’m interested in.

The biggest takeaway for me though was that what we are seeing now is very much what Google would call ‘labs’ and anybody else would call ‘beta’.

My conclusion was to stick with my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on this, it feels like the future.

This little article sums it up beautifully:

Frankly, we have to applaud this move from Apple. Insofar as Apple has put itself in a position of gatekeeper, pruning such shady apps from the store only improves it. [But] When even well-made, highly regarded apps have trouble getting approved, it’s clear there is still much more room for improvement.

Thanks to MacUser I found this article from Mr Gruber. This takes the App Store to a new low in my book, and reinforces my instinct not to develop for the iPhone or iPod Touch. No matter how useful the devices, I wouldn’t have the time for this sort of silliness.

Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.

Update: Mr Gruber has posted an update with portions of an email from Phil Schiller. This is quite a long and thought-provoking post, but I like Mr Gruber’s summary:

That Schiller was willing to respond in such detail and length, on the record, is the first proof I’ve seen that Apple’s leadership is trying to make the course correction that many of us see as necessary for the long-term success of the platform.