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Facebook iPhone Dev Quit's - Apple's approval proccess to blame
Nick Mahar Nov 11, 2009
Apple, Applications, Gadgets, How to, Internet, Mobile, Movies, News, Okay Geek, Personal, Pictures, Websites, breaking, iPhone 
My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies.” – Joe Hewitt
Joe Hewitt is the man behind one of the most popular apps on the iTunes store, the Facebook app. Sadly, he just tweeted that he is done and no longer working on the app.
"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.”
On Joe's website he says:
"
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.”
This is a big deal because Joe is basically the one-man show behind the Facebook app. Hewitt has been very vocal over the years about Apple's ridiculous App Store approval policies, even posting about it on his site last August. Hewitt claims Apple's review system should be eliminated completely.
Though he no longer works on the app, he is still with Facebook and will continue to work with Apple because they continuously offer the best product out there.
[Via TechCrunch]
-NM
