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Ambrosia’s Andrew Welch on the iPhone update and iToner

Posted on October 3rd, 2007 at 20:48 by John Sinteur in category: Apple -- Write a comment

[Quote:]

I’m frustrated, honestly. With iToner, we worked very, very hard to make sure we did things the right way. We didn’t hack into the phone at all, we didn’t “jailbreak” it – we used the same APIs that iTunes uses to put files on the iPhone, and we put those ringtones in the user area of the phone. This is why iToner ringtones survived OS updates.

Then Apple rolled out their iTunes music store sale of ringtones… and they broke iToner. The way they broke it seemed excessive, but understandable from a programming point of view, so we rapidly came out with a fix. The first few weeks of iToner’s life was nothing but coffee, code, and sleepless nights for people here at Ambrosia, so as such, sure, it’s frustrating that it’s broken yet again.

We’re not putting anything but data on the iPhone, and we’re doing it in the right way, and we’re putting it in the user area of the iPhone. Apple is intentionally making sure that products like ours don’t work. That I think is a mistake – it’s as if in an iPhone OS update, Apple decided that MP3s you got from ripping a CD should no longer play on your iPhone, and you should instead buy them from their store.

  1. bill l. on October 4th, 2007 at 1:09:

    It’s actually pretty funny how blindsided I think Apple has been by the growing backlash against the iPhone. I think they never considered the idea that many early adopters would be Apple loyalists used to doing as they pleased on their Macs and expecting the same freedom on their shiny new expensive toy. Their leap into bed with onerous mega corps like At&T is going to kill their image, and rightly so. Everything they are doing is being driven, or so it seems, by this wedding with the cell phone carrier market. All the carriers make a mint selling ring tones, games, and more to customers, so of course Apple wants a slice of that. They get a little chunk of all the AT&T sign ups, I believe, and no doubt they want to have iTunes in place so in 2 years time when the iPhone goes 100% officially region free, they’ll have an establish hub to drive content sales. They can’t hope to do that on the Mac to the same degree. It’s like MS with DirectX and the Xbox/360. Sure, Direct X is free, but if you want to be an Xbox/360 dev, that’ll cost you, despite being nearly identical code. As a result of all this, Apple may watch their loyal base wither and die. Perhaps this is needed to make the push from niche cult product to mass market giant, but the adverse publicity and bad word of mouth could hurt worse than they might have imagined.

  2. Roland Hesz on October 5th, 2007 at 13:06:

    What image? You mean the “we are a control freak, evil in a different way from Microsoft” image?
    Apples has always been a corporation, with the goal to make money.
    They are no different. They just coat more sugar when needed.

  3. Roland Hesz on October 5th, 2007 at 13:07:

    I hate double posting. *sighs*

  4. John Sinteur on October 5th, 2007 at 13:09:

    The “we’re a life-style brand, we’re ooooooh so cool, and we’ll make you look cool too with our “it just works” goodies” image they’re trying (and currently failing) to cultivate.

  5. John Sinteur on October 5th, 2007 at 13:13:

    I’ve deleted the double for you :-)

  6. Roland Hesz on October 7th, 2007 at 2:35:

    I see.. the sugar coating :)
    Don’t get me wrong, I like/dislike both Apple and Microsoft equally :)

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