I Don’t Typically Do This

Apple is pulling Google Voice apps from the App Store because they supposedly duplicate existing iPhone functionality. I generally feel pretty bad for these developers who have spent money and effort building apps only to have them arbitrarily pulled by Apple. This string of takedowns, however, hits especially close to home because I fired up Xcode last week to start working on my own Google Voice dialer.

Luckily, I didn’t get far, but the takedowns did get me thinking again about how any significant development effort can be invalidated at Apple’s whim. I’m not planning on giving up iPhone development, but Apple’s behavior makes it increasingly difficult to justify making iPhone development more than a hobby.