Joe Hewitt, the developer of the iPhone facebook application, has tweeted for the first time in about a month and the tweet is shocking… he has decided to quit developing the app due to Apple’s approval process.
“Time for me to try something new. I’ve handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I’m onto a new project.”
TechCrunch was able to get a little more info from Hewitt and this is what he had to say…
My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.
The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.”
Check out TechCrunch’s full article HERE.