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Wow you really are desperate for anything. First of all, what does any of this have to do with the link you provided which was specifically about MS and Apple and the subscription rules for Office? This topic is ancillary to the one in the link. Second, yes Apple bans apps. Sometimes the reasons are not clear. Sometimes the reasons are clear but people don't like them.

As for iPhone application graveyard, do you even read what you refer to? From iPhone application graveyard:

The Graveyard has served its purpose. . . . The iPhone App Store today is more open and more free than it originally was. The rules are now available to App Store developers, and several apps that Apple previously either rejected or “pocket rejected”, most prominently Google Voice, are now available in the Store.

So Apple wasn't clear about rejections and may not have been consistent with its policies. So what? You want to contribute that to malice, go ahead. I would think that in having to curate hundreds of thousands of applications, there are bound to be problems.

Third, if Apple's aim was to quash the competition, don't you think that Apple wouldn't let their competitors in the app store at all? Google, Amazon, Dell, and Adobe have multiple apps in the App Store right and some of them compete directly with Apple products. So Apple clearly has no issues with some of their competitors even when they offer competing applications. I even remember CEO Tim Cook endorsing Google's Map app during the botched Apple Maps launch. Doesn't sound like a company intent at going out all lengths to hurt their competitors, does it?

You may want this.

make sure they get paid for every app their stupid devices can run.

Explain the fact that Apple will be happy to host and serve your free app on their store and how it fits into your logic bomb here.

Only if it's not political, or deemed offensive. Not even if you're a Pulitzer prize winner (notice how they capitulated AFTER the shitstorm,so if you were a ordinary cartoonist, you're fucked)..

See the iPhone app graveyard(now outdated but some gems here) : http://boredzo.org/killed-iphone-apps/

The fact that you can't CHOOSE to install Flash and you can't CHOOSE to use another, more powerful browser, on the other hand - that I care about. THAT'S an asshole, anti-competitive move. Apple deserves to be smacked down for that.

You can choose. It takes effort but they can't and won't stop you from jailbreaking and installing any app you want. They will stop supporting you however, which is perfectly acceptable.

Wrong. They consider it highly illegal. Maybe you were too busy fawning over your iDevices when the news hit the net?

THis is Apple's response to EFF's request for an exemption for jailbreaking to the Copyright office:

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/apple-inc-31.pdf

Some excerpts:

Current jailbreak techniques now in widespread use utilize unauthorized modifications to
the copyrighted bootloader and OS, resulting in infringement of the copyrights in those
programs. For example, the current most popular jailbreaking software for the iPhone,
PwnageTool (cited by EFF in its submission), causes a modified bootloader and OS to be
installed in the iPhone, resulting in infringement of Apple’s reproduction and derivative works
rights. Specifically, in the spring of 2008, hackers were able to determine how to circumvent the
secure ROM in the iPhone and falsely sign the bootloader. Using such knowledge, a falsely
signed modified version of Apple’s bootloader was created that will fool the secure ROM into
loading it, thereby circumventing the TPM implemented by the secure ROM. PwnageTool
directly modifies a copy of the bootloader and loads it onto the iPhone. The modified bootloader
is configured so that it does not perform the authentication check of the OS, and it therefore
loads a modified version of Apple’s OS that is not signed, thereby circumventing the TPM
implemented by the bootloader. The modified OS, in turn, is configured so that it does not
perform authentication checks on application programs loaded onto the iPhone, thereby
jailbreaking the device. In sum, PwnageTool circumvents every link of Apple’s “chain of trust”
TPMs in the iPhone. More generally, as the EFF submission admits, “decryption and
modification of the iPhone firmware appears to be necessary for any jailbreak technique to
succeed on a persistent basis.”32
Jailbreaking therefore involves infringing uses of the bootloader and OS, the copyrighted
works that are protected by the TPMs being circumvented. Unauthorized derivative versions of
the bootloader and OS have been created. Copies of those infringing works have been stored on
web sites, and infringing reproductions of those works are created each time they are
downloaded through Pwnage Tool and loaded onto the iPhone.33 In addition, as discussed in
Section II.B.2 above, the jailbroken OS enables pirated copies of Apple copyrighted content and
other third party content such as games and applications to play on the iPhone, resulting in
further infringing uses of copyrighted works and diminished incentive to create those works in
the first place.
In sum, the jailbreaking of the iPhone that would be permitted by the proposed Class #1
exemption in 5A and

In fact, to join in with the recent Apple-bashing (which I whole-heartedly agree with), I'd suggest that mobile app development will move away from the iPhone, in favour of Android phones. When you are investing time and money in app development, there is simply more certainty in developing apps that will live or die on their merits, as opposed to Apple's 'approval' process.

Real numbers say otherwise. The growth in development of iPhone apps is unmatched. Joe Clark explains why talking about the iPad:

This was the weekend those of us with high standards lost their remaining residue of patience for ideologues who hyperbolize about open systems without actually creating something people want to use.

An example of this is Apple rejecting.. how many? 40 out of 170,000 available applications? consumers don't freaking care, they just want something that works. If you do care, check the iPhone graveyard for explanations why. But back to the point: you are delusional to think your Apple bashing will "move away development from the iPhone". Just check the iPads sold today, more units than the iPhone. Get a reality check mate.

The iPhone is why I have low hopes for an Apple tablet. Apple has demonstrated that they're willing to turn computing back 30 years and put stupid restrictions on their devices for the sake of control.

Control also means better quality, that's why App Store tops 3 billion downloads. Average Joe couldn't care less about Apple rejecting around 30 applications out of 100,000 or RMS-like comments about freedom. Compare that to 16,000 apps on the Android Market where bizarre UIs make it through and reviews are filled with spam.

It's not like the built a brilliant device and then created a bad App Store, quality control is part of the success.

Here is the (probably incompleted) list of apps rejected by Apple so far.

• Circumvent carrier policies: NetShare, CastCatcher, 0870
• Trademark conflict: BoxOffice*, Tris, Shaker
• Scam: I am rich
• Non PG-13: Slasher, Murderdrome*, Pull My Finger*, Knnife Music*, Prohibition 2*, Booty Caller, Tweetie*, NIN iPhone
• Duplicated functionality (aka killing the competition): MailWrangler, Podcaster
• Use of undocumented API: Peeps
• Defamatory: Obama!, Obama Trampoline
• Not standard UI: The odyssey
• Unknown reasons: Voice Notes, iFartz, Teto

Those marked with an asterisk were reinstated or modified to fit Apple policy. For NetShare and "I am rich", I'm guessing the reason since no explanation was given by Apple.

If you know a rejected App not listed here, notify Peter Hosey at the iPhone Application Graveyard .

We're talking about Apple's rejection of applications which are deemed to "compete" with Apple's own functionality, or even planned functionality. Here's a (probably incomplete) list of higher profile apps that have been rejected by Apple, for various reasons.

Regarding Opera's rejection -- if Microsoft could have locked users into using only Internet Explorer on Windows, they would have. Once IE had killed Netscape, most internet-savvy people were even okay with using IE. Just because most of us are okay with Apple, and Safari doesn't suck, doesn't mean that Apple is justified in locking its users into its choice of software.

The app potential is wasted thanks to their draconian controls.

There are thousands and thousands of apps in the app store. You make it sound like there are none at all.

No, that isn't what s/he said at all... and whoever modded him/her troll only did so because they disagreed. Cowmonaut isn't trolling. Numerous apps have been killed by Apple because they compete with iTMS, or because they aren't G-rated enough, etc. I'm sure the number of apps on that page represent a tiny portion of apps that were killed or never even attempted because of Apple's lame policies. Other's like TomTom were simply aborted because of Apple's extremely lame policies toward developers. Sun was excited and ready to port a Java to the iPhone, but again, thanks to Apple's lame policies, Sun is not allowed to port Java to the iPhone.

Apple's policy is so extremely lame that you have to pay Apple just to write an app for their phone. You can't even write an app for your OWN phone without paying them a fee. You cannot distribute an app without distrubuting it through the app store and paying Apple about the same percentage as the US government's highest tax bracket. Apple's policy was so lame in fact that developers have only recently been allowed to discuss iPhone development with other developers openly and write books on the subject. Apple policy on the iPhone is tremendously, stupendously, colossally lame. If you aren't a developer... and you don't appear to be... there aren't words for you to grok how lame Apple policy truly is.

You make it sound like there are none at all.

No, s/he doesn't. But you seem to be spoiling for it.. so I will. I've been able to send faxes with my N95 since before iPhone 1.0. Can iPhone do that yet? I've been using speaker independent voice dialing since before the first iPhone's debut. Can iPhone do that? I can stream internet radio wirelessly through A2DP into my car stereo with my Nokia. Can iPhone do that? Too bad iPhone developers are hobbled by lame Apple policy. If they weren't, you might be able to do what the competition has been doing now for years. I'm still waiting for Apple to offer me a reason to 'upgrade' my 18 month old, already a generation out of date, phone.

iPhone? Fail.

Let's just say that Hillary has a hard time masking her emotions, for better or worse. It's more than just an agenda. I may have the solution to world hunger, but if I say something like "All you idiots listen to me, I know what I'm doing!" the response probably wouldn't be favorable. Her expression frequently conveys that message.