Doc Searls is not the only one with questions about how Apple determines what to approve for the app store, but this conclusion has problems:

There's a limit to how long (much less well, or poorly) Apple can keep sphinctering App Store choices. I'm betting it'll stop when the iPhone gets serious competition from equally appealing phones that can run applications that come from anywhere, rather than just from some controlling BigCo's walled garden.

Here's the thing though: there are two problems that are working against any other vendor managing this:

• The sheer size and scope of the app store. It's not for nothing that people say "there's an app for that"
• The standardized build environment for iPhone apps

Compare the guy looking to build an iPhone app and the guy looking to build something for Android (or Windows Mobile, or Blackberry, etc....). For the iPhone, you know what to expect. Sure, there are versions, but there's also a large amount of similarity, even between 1st gen iPhones and the latest 3gs. Now consider the other platforms: keyboard or touchscreen? Camera, no camera, and how good? Video, no video? GPS, no GPS? Wifi, no Wifi? And so on. As an application developer, you know what you can expect to find on the iPhone. You have no such assurance for any other device - there's too much variation (think about writing an app for both the Storm and the Curve, for instance).

In effect, Apple has managed to create the same conditions for smart phones that Microsoft managed with desktops during the 90's: A standard environment for application developers. That tends to breed lots and lots of apps, even if "better" platforms come along - because the "better" platform isn't standard, and just can't get enough oxygen. I think it's already too late for any other device to take the lead from Apple in this arena, just as it was way too late for other vendors (like Apple) in 1996 at the desktop...

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