Apple are showing themselves to be spectacular control freaks, or perhaps even bigger control freaks than we already knew.
**** them and their store. If you value being able to do and buy what you want for your phone, look elsewhere.
You're just going to get tied in a screwed over the more time passes.
🙄
Or perhaps there's a very good reason for all this.
They aren't stupid. In fact, Apple is the only one in the industry that seems to do everything right, at the right time. They're just trying to balance tight control (which is an absolute MUST for Apple - you wouldn't have the luxury of an iPhone without it) with a minimum level of transparency (not always easy.) Apple pioneered the whole App Store concept (usable App Store, at least), and this is brand new territory for them. They changed an entire industry overnight and are now leading it.
The person who's on point has to deal with situations as they come. The followers bringing up the rear have the luxury of observing what goes on and then reacting (and they haven't done nearly as well as Apple has in this area.)
Let's wait and see what this decision by Apple is connected to before we dismiss the entire App Store concept - which incidentally, the average user loves, regardless of the exceptions regarding Google Voice and whatever Ninja Dictionary. Incidents and issues that the average user will never notice, much less care about. Carriers are falling all over themselves to get iPhone rights and users everywhere are trying to get their hands on one. The App Store is in place, it works very well, but it's a helluva lot to manage for Apple. So far they've done a good job. There have been a couple of exceptions and those will be sorted out. The App Store has been, and still is (and will be) a developer's paradise for the most part, and it has only benefited users.
Keep in mind the whole Tablet issue as a possible factor in this particular case. There might be a connection.
So cool your jets, and remember what smartphones were like before 2007.