Interviews suggest iPhone developer experience not too bad so far

My experience has been pretty good so far, but I think Apple could do much better. The SDK itself is excellent, and the documentation they have is very helpful for the most part. There were some things I really got stuck on though, and because of the NDA it was a big challenge to find the help I needed. In some cases I just had to bang my head against the wall until I worked through it.

But with a few things I owe a LOT to the few developers who've been willing to break the NDA and post helpful information online (like furbo.org). It's a real shame that Apple is telling us we can't even help each other make better apps. It's more insulting now that they've introduced a student program--now students can discuss things but professionals still can't. If Apple has good reasons for their NDA, that's fine--but they could easily set up a forum that only developers can access, or something of the sort.

They desperately need a search function for their developer site too--since it's all closed off, Google is no help. On a couple occasions I spent a long time working through a problem just because I couldn't find the right info on their site. One time I had to redo a lot of work after finally finding the proper way to do it.

Their app rejections are becoming a real problem too. Even if you're willing to agree with their reasons for rejecting these apps (personally, I'm not) the process is still a big issue. There's no way to find out if your idea is okay until you have a finished app ready--after you've spent weeks or months working on it. They need to be much more clear about the things they won't allow. Even better if they could have some sort of idea approval process. I understand they can't approve an app based solely on a description, but if you could at least get a "we probably will/won't allow this" it would be a big help. If they don't do something they're going to stifle innovation, drive away developers, and hurt the quality of apps available. I know if I had an idea at all similar to an Apple app, I just couldn't justify spending any time on it at this point.

I'm really hoping these negatives will get more press so Apple is pushed to address them.

Wow - he really makes himself out to be a cool-looking guy on his site. Talk about artistic license.

http://askdavetaylor.com/

Wow, out of the thousands of apps in the store and many more not approved, you are basing this "story" on 11 people surveyed?

Not even close to a good "sample" to base on if you ask me

Looks very much like the spawn of Woz to me.