The App Store and the Desire for Perfection
That we had to wait two years for the iPhone’s text selection and pasteboard is a good example of one aspect of the Apple way: better nothing at all than something less than great. That’s not to say Apple never releases anything less than great, but they try not to. This is contrary to the philosophy of most other tech companies — and diametrically opposed to the philosophy of Microsoft. And it is very much what drives some people crazy about Apple — it’s simply incomprehensible to some people that it might be better to have no text selection/pasteboard implementation while waiting for a great one than to have a poor implementation in the interim.
It’s hard to prove that good is the enemy of great, but the evidence speaks for itself.
I find the Apple’s way of handling the App Store approval process and John Gruber’s assessment of their desire for perfection to be in complete contradiction with one another.
(Hat tip to nikf for helping me draw the connection by posting the two links one after another)