One way is to have a gatekeeper who checks every single application against a set of criteria.

The second way is to use the ‘market’ and provide ratings on applications. Let the market decide what is good and what is bad. This is like Amazon, shopping sites and most other review sites.

On the Android Market the rating system and comments system work well in providing information on the good and bad applications. It also works well on Amazon.

Thus for Apple to choose to control the app store, to me, implies that it’s not necessarily about controlling the quality of the apps, but rather controlling what people can do with the platform.

This is a far cry away from the days of turning an Apple II on and being in BASIC … or creating your own HyperCard stack on a Mac SE/30. This is how I learnt to program. Seems ironic.

That said, I think the overall quality of apps in the iTunes Store speaks volumes. Maybe the approval process boosts consistency and quality, particularly when it comes to user experience. To most users, who don’t care about the beauty of the SDK, rubbish third party apps reflect badly on the platform on which they run. If someone thinks the iTunes Store is full of rubbish… they’ll just love the Android Market.

Perhaps I’m just brainwashed. I’d like to think not thou…. ooh, look – something shiny.