How Apple, AT&T Are Closing the Mobile Web

by Jano
A growing chorus claims that Apple’s questionable approval policy for its iPhone application store raises issues with net neutrality.Free Press, a group that advocates the idea of an open internet — that is, one in which consumers have the right to browse the web and run internet applications without restrictions — is the latest of several organizations to call out Apple for its inconsistencies. Free Press alleges that Apple crippled SlingPlayer, a TV-streaming application for iPhone, so that it would only work on a Wi-Fi connection; the initial version worked with a 3G cellular network connection as well as Wi-Fi. The SlingPlayer restriction is inconsistent with Apple’s approval of the Major League Baseball application, which provides live-streaming of sports events on both Wi-Fi and 3G connections, the group said.“That strikes us as odd and potentially nefarious because it really represents a carrier picking and choosing applications for consumers as opposed to letting consumers decide which videos they want to watch,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. “It’s exactly the sort of thing you’d expect in an internet experience that’s controlled by the carrier.”Now nearly a year old, Apple’s App Store has received as much praise as it has criticism.
Featuring more than 50,000 applications, the App Store has made some programmers quite wealthy with sales of their apps while leaving others penniless when their software met the harsh fate of rejection. Apple has said that iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded more than 1 billion apps from the store since it opened in July 2008.IPhone application developer Ben Kahle also feels that Apple is overreaching in its role as a gatekeeper to the mobile internet. In May, Apple rejected Kahle’s app “Me So Holy,” which would have enabled users to fashion their faces into portraits resembling Jesus Christ. Apple said the app contains “objectionable material,” and when Kahle asked if he could modify the app to gain approval, Apple said it would never appear in the App Store under any condition.Why? Apple said it has a “worldwide market” and must “protect the sensitivity of the customers,” according to Kahle.“It’s definitely hypocritical,” Kahle said of 3G-capable live-streaming for MLB in relation to SlingPlayer, which is Wi-Fi only. “There needs to be a better system for people to choose the type of content they can download.”