Apple's Schiller responds to disgruntled iPhone developer

A week after Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller responded to a Daring Fireball article recounting the App Store approval gauntlet run by application developer Matchstick Software, Schiller is continuing to reach out to the iPhone development community, this time contacting a programmer who vowed to boycott the iPhone after Apple rejected his ereader submission. Steven Frank, co-founder of development firm Panic, contended that the App Store's approval process is often illogical, writing on his blog "I've reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can't participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It's Apple's ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don't like it, I can leave. So, I don't like it, and I'm leaving."

Schiller sent Frank an email responding to the boycott. "I haven't sought Phil's explicit permission to republish the letter, so I won't do so here,' Frank writes. "But to summarize, he said: ‘We're listening to your feedback.' Not all of my suggested solutions were viable, he said, but they were taking it all in as they continue to evolve the App Store." Schiller also denied rumors Apple is rejecting all ereader software submitted to the App Store.

"As I've said repeatedly, communication will solve this problem--not silence," Frank concludes. "Let's push that communication down from executives-to-bloggers to app-store-to-developers and I think we've really got a breakthrough." Frank nevertheless adds that he remains unsure where he stands on Apple's policies: "I think the true litmus test will be how Apple and AT&T formally respond to the FCC inquiry about Google Voice. That is due no later than the 21st, a week from Friday. That decision really cuts to the crux of the whole thing for me, and the great thing (for us users) is everyone has to come out and say something about what happened. No more speculation."

For more on the Schiller/Frank dialogue:
- read this Apple Insider article