Fruux, the free alternative to MobileMe, has been deemed too similar to Apple’s own MobileMe solution. The developers behind Fruux submitted their desktop App to Apple months ago to be featured in Apples’ Software Download Page. Yesterday they received this short but clear message:
Hi,
fruux’s feature-set is too similar to Apple’s MobileMe (http://www.me.com).
Regards,
Apple Downloads
Duh. That IS the whole point!
Fruux is similar to MobileMe except for one notable difference: it is free!
Fruux was planning on offering an iPhone version of its software too but is seriously reconsidering that now. If they can’t even get a link from Apple’s Downloads page they can be pretty sure they won’t be accepted in the iPhone store either. Why spend money, time and sleepless nights on a product you know won’t ever be officially accepted?
Apple thinks competition is good. Except when you are competing with Apple’s own products.
It’s a shame Apple (mis)interpret “open” the way it does. They probably will win from letting more people offer products than loose from it. A lot of people, like me, would be encouraged to join the Apple world and develop for the community. And of course MobileMe should be free. Why pay for a service which comes with your OS, only because it’s SAAS?
That is actually pretty easy to imagine. It is exactly what they did to Netscape. But Apple? Just wow…
That’s really weird. Imagine Windows telling Mozilla to f*ck off because they don’t want competitors on their platform. “Sorry, we don’t want any imitations of Internet Explorer”
Thats really a shame. If they would refuse listings for all apps, it would be ok – but there are several sync apps listed. Looks a bit a arbitrary.
Thats the price we have to pay for supporting a closed eco-system… hope Apple will move to a more open path in the future.