Apple's Mistake
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</td > November 2009 I don't think Apple realizes how badly the App Store approval process is broken.
</td> 2009 年 11 月 我认为 Apple 没有意识到 App Store 审批流程的破坏有多么严重。
Or rather, I don't think they realize how much it matters that it's broken.
或者更确切地说，我认为他们没有意识到它被破坏了有多么重要。
The way Apple runs the App Store has harmed their reputation with programmers more than anything else they've ever done.
苹果公司运行应用程序商店的方式对他们在程序员中的声誉的损害比他们做过的任何事情都严重。
Their reputation with programmers used to be great.
他们在程序员中的声誉曾经很高。
It used to be the most common complaint you heard about Apple was that their fans admired them too uncritically.
过去，你听到的关于苹果最常见的抱怨是，他们的粉丝过于不加批判地崇拜他们。
The App Store has changed that.
App Store 改变了这一点。
Now a lot of programmers have started to see Apple as evil.
现在很多程序员开始将苹果视为邪恶的。
How much of the goodwill Apple once had with programmers have they lost over the App Store?
苹果曾经对程序员的好感因 App Store 失去了多少？
A third?
第三个？
Half?
一半？
And that's just so far.
这只是到目前为止。
The App Store is an ongoing karma leak.
App Store 是一个持续的业力泄漏。
* * * How did Apple get into this mess?
* * * 苹果是如何陷入困境的？
Their fundamental problem is that they don't understand software.
他们的根本问题是他们不懂软件。
They treat iPhone apps the way they treat the music they sell through iTunes.
他们对待 iPhone 应用程序就像对待通过 iTunes 销售的音乐一样。
Apple is the channel; they own the user; if you want to reach users, you do it on their terms.
苹果是渠道；他们拥有用户；如果你想接触用户，你就按照他们的条件去做。
The record labels agreed, reluctantly.
唱片公司不情愿地同意了。
But this model doesn't work for software.
但这个模型不适用于软件。
It doesn't work for an intermediary to own the user.
对于中介来说，拥有用户是行不通的。
The software business
软件业务
learned that in the early 1980s, when companies like VisiCorp showed that although the words "software" and "publisher" fit together, the underlying concepts don't.
据了解，在 20 世纪 80 年代初，像 VisiCorp 这样的公司表明，虽然“软件”和“发行商”这两个词可以放在一起，但其基本概念却不一样。
Software isn't like music or books.
软件不像音乐或书籍。
It's too complicated for a third party to act as an intermediary between developer and user.
第三方充当开发者和用户之间的中介太复杂了。
And yet that's what Apple is trying to be with the App Store: a software publisher.
然而，这正是苹果公司试图通过 App Store 实现的目标：软件发行商。
And a particularly overreaching one at that, with fussy tastes and a rigidly enforced
而且是一种特别过分的行为，口味挑剔，执行严格
house style.
房子风格。
If software publishing didn't work in 1980, it works even less now that software development has evolved from a small number of big releases to a constant stream of small ones.
如果说软件发布在 1980 年不起作用的话，那么现在它的作用就更小了，因为软件开发已经从少量的大版本发展到源源不断的小版本。
But Apple doesn't understand that either.
但苹果也不明白这一点。
Their model of product development derives from hardware.
他们的产品开发模式源自硬件。
They work on something till they think it's finished, then they release it.
他们致力于某件事直到他们认为它完成了，然后他们发布它。
You have to do that with hardware, but because
你必须用硬件来做到这一点，但因为
software is so easy to change, its design can benefit from evolution.
软件很容易改变，它的设计可以从进化中受益。
The standard way to develop applications now is to launch fast and iterate.
The standard way to develop applications now is to launch fast and iterate.
Which means it's a disaster to have long, random delays each time you release a new version.
这意味着每次发布新版本时出现长时间的随机延迟都是一场灾难。
Apparently Apple's attitude is that developers should be more careful when they submit a new version to the App Store.
显然苹果的态度是开发者在向App Store提交新版本时应该更加小心。
They would say that.
他们会这么说。
But powerful as they are, they're not powerful enough to
但尽管他们很强大，但他们还没有强大到足以
turn back the evolution of technology.
逆转技术的进化。
Programmers don't use launch-fast-and-iterate out of laziness.
Programmers don't use launch-fast-and-iterate out of laziness.
They use it because it yields the best results.
他们使用它是因为它能产生最好的结果。
By obstructing that process, Apple is making them do bad work, and programmers hate that as much as Apple would.
By obstructing that process, Apple is making them do bad work, and programmers hate that as much as Apple would.
How would Apple like it if when they discovered a serious bug in OS X, instead of releasing a software update immediately, they had to submit their code to an intermediary who sat on it for a month
如果当苹果发现 OS X 中的严重错误时，不是立即发布软件更新，而是必须将代码提交给坐了一个月的中间人，苹果会如何希望呢？
and then rejected it because it contained an icon they didn't like?
and then rejected it because it contained an icon they didn't like?
By breaking software development, Apple gets the opposite of what they intended: the version of an app currently available in the App Store tends to be an old and buggy one.
通过破坏软件开发，苹果公司得到了与他们的意图相反的结果：App Store中当前可用的应用程序版本往往是旧的且有缺陷的版本。
One developer told me: As a result of their process, the App Store is full of half-baked applications.
One developer told me: As a result of their process, the App Store is full of half-baked applications.
I make a new version almost every day that I release to beta users.
I make a new version almost every day that I release to beta users.
The version on the App Store feels old and crappy.
The version on the App Store feels old and crappy.
I'm sure that a lot of developers feel this way: One emotion is "I'm not really proud about what's in the App Store", and it's combined with the emotion "Really, it's Apple's fault." Another wrote: I believe that they think their approval process helps users by ensuring quality.
我确信很多开发者都有这样的感觉：一种情绪是“我对 App Store 中的内容并不感到自豪”，并且它与“真的，这是苹果的错”的情绪结合在一起。另一位写道：我相信他们认为他们的审批流程通过确保质量来帮助用户。
In reality, bugs like ours get through all the time and then it can take 4-8 weeks to get that bug fix approved, leaving users to think that iPhone apps sometimes just don't work.
事实上，像我们这样的错误总是会出现，然后可能需要 4-8 周的时间才能让错误修复获得批准，让用户认为 iPhone 应用程序有时无法运行。
Worse for Apple, these apps work just fine on other platforms that have immediate approval processes.
Worse for Apple, these apps work just fine on other platforms that have immediate approval processes.
Actually I suppose Apple has a third misconception: that all the complaints about App Store approvals are not a serious problem.
Actually I suppose Apple has a third misconception: that all the complaints about App Store approvals are not a serious problem.
They must hear developers complaining.
他们必须听到开发商的抱怨。
But partners and suppliers are always complaining.
但合作伙伴和供应商却总是在抱怨。
It would be a bad sign if they weren't; it would mean you were being too easy on them.
如果他们不这样做，那将是一个坏兆头。这意味着你对他们太宽容了。
Meanwhile the iPhone
与此同时，iPhone
is selling better than ever.
卖得比以往任何时候都好。
So why do they need to fix anything?
那么为什么他们需要修复任何东西呢？
They get away with maltreating developers, in the short term, because they make such great hardware.
在短期内，他们虐待开发人员的行为并没有受到惩罚，因为他们制造了如此出色的硬件。
I just bought a new 27" iMac a couple days ago.
几天前我刚买了一台新的 27 英寸 iMac。
It's fabulous.
太棒了。
The screen's too shiny, and the disk is surprisingly loud, but it's so beautiful that you can't make yourself care.
The screen's too shiny, and the disk is surprisingly loud, but it's so beautiful that you can't make yourself care.
So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings.
So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings.
I felt the way I'd feel buying something made in a country with a bad human rights record.
我的感觉就像购买一个人权记录不良的国家制造的东西一样。
That was new.
那是新的。
In the past when I bought things from Apple it was an unalloyed pleasure.
In the past when I bought things from Apple it was an unalloyed pleasure.
Oh boy!
噢，孩子！
They make such great stuff.
他们做出了很棒的东西。
This time it felt like a Faustian bargain.
这一次感觉像是一场浮士德式的讨价还价。
They make such great stuff, but they're such assholes.
They make such great stuff, but they're such assholes.
Do I really want to support this company?
我真的想支持这家公司吗？
* * * Should Apple care what people like me think?
* * * 苹果应该关心像我这样的人的想法吗？
What difference does
有什么区别
it make if they alienate a small minority of their users?
如果他们疏远了一小部分用户，会有什么后果？
There are a couple reasons they should care.
他们应该关心的原因有几个。
One is that these users are the people they want as employees.
One is that these users are the people they want as employees.
If your company seems evil, the best programmers won't work for you.
如果你的公司看起来很邪恶，那么最好的程序员就不会为你工作。
That hurt Microsoft a lot starting in the 90s.
从 90 年代开始，这对微软造成了很大的伤害。
Programmers started to feel sheepish about working there.
Programmers started to feel sheepish about working there.
It seemed like selling out.
看起来像是卖光了。
When people from Microsoft were talking to other programmers and they mentioned where
当微软的人与其他程序员交谈时，他们提到了哪里
they worked, there were a lot of self-deprecating jokes about having gone over to the dark side.
they worked, there were a lot of self-deprecating jokes about having gone over to the dark side.
But the real problem for Microsoft wasn't the embarrassment of the people they hired.
但微软真正的问题并不是他们雇佣的员工感到尴尬。
It was the people they never got.
这是他们从未得到过的人。
And you know who got them?
你知道谁得到了它们吗？
Google and Apple.
谷歌和苹果。
If Microsoft was the Empire, they were the Rebel Alliance.
如果微软是帝国，那么他们就是反叛联盟。
And it's largely because they got more of the best people that Google and Apple are doing so much better than Microsoft today.
很大程度上是因为他们拥有更多最优秀的人才，谷歌和苹果今天的表现比微软好得多。
Why are programmers so fussy about their employers' morals?
为什么程序员对雇主的道德如此挑剔？
Partly because they can afford to be.
部分原因是他们有能力这样做。
The best programmers can work wherever they want.
最好的程序员可以在任何他们想去的地方工作。
They don't have to work for a company they have qualms about.
他们不必为一家他们心存疑虑的公司工作。
But the other reason programmers are fussy, I think, is that evil begets stupidity.
但我认为程序员挑剔的另一个原因是邪恶会导致愚蠢。
An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose the ability to win by doing better work.
一个通过行使权力取胜的组织开始失去通过更好的工作取胜的能力。
And it's
这是
not fun for a smart person to work in a place where the best ideas aren't the ones that win.
对于一个聪明人来说，在一个最好的创意无法获胜的地方工作并不是一件有趣的事。
I think the reason Google embraced "Don't be evil" so eagerly was not so much to impress the outside world as to inoculate themselves against arrogance.
我认为谷歌如此热切地拥抱“不作恶”的原因与其说是为了给外界留下深刻印象，不如说是为了让自己免受傲慢的影响。
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