Seriously? While Blackberries, PalmOS, Symbian, Android and Windows Mobile devices have all let you load whatever the heck you want onto their phones over the past 5+ years, we are now going to claim that it's not that Apple doesn't have its shit together, but that the Pentagon is getting in their way?
There is no such control being applied to most of the other smartphone platforms. They all have their issues, either with the end user experience not being very good, with overcomplicated development processes, with low uptake, with poor or nonexistent app stores, etc, but only Apple behaves so strangely towards its developers.
Apple has come the closest to nailing the big picture: technology, uptake, user experience. Instead, the part they are failing on is treating developers like they care. It should be the easiest thing to fix -- and that's also what makes it so annoying for so many people.
There is no such control being applied to most of the other smartphone platforms. They all have their issues, either with the end user experience not being very good, with overcomplicated development processes, with low uptake, with poor or nonexistent app stores, etc, but only Apple behaves so strangely towards its developers.
Apple has come the closest to nailing the big picture: technology, uptake, user experience. Instead, the part they are failing on is treating developers like they care. It should be the easiest thing to fix -- and that's also what makes it so annoying for so many people.