Microsoft learned valuable lessons with Windows 7. It’s leaner, faster, and the OS has been publicly tested for many months. It’s good — even I bought a copy. (Although I may have reconsidered if I’d seen Microsoft’s embarrassingly awful “Hosting Your [Windows 7] Party” commercials first!)

Excitable Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will unveil Windows 7 at a press conference on Thursday. Industry rumor-mongers are also expecting him to provide further details about the opening of Microsoft’s standalone stores, with the first expected in Scottsdale, Arizona, US.

This is a new venture for Microsoft. As well as tackling Google in the cloud, they hope to beat Apple on the high street. But will it work?

Microsoft manufacture many products, so I’ve no doubt that they can fill a shop with desirable items such as the XBox, keyboards, mice, accessories and software. However, those products are available from almost every online and offline electronics retailer.

The same could be said for Apple’s stores, but they have a stronger and more tactile brand. Apple’s customer base has an unhealthy obsession with the products; fanboys stick with the company, they are less price-sensitive, and are quick to forgive any corporate transgressions.

That said, Microsoft is the world’s most successful IT business and they can obviously see some potential. Perhaps their own stores will raise the company’s profile beyond boring business software? But can Microsoft’s products ever reach the levels of desirability enjoyed by Apple?

Would you visit a Microsoft store? Would you find it exciting? Would you admit to that?

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There’s no doubt that Apple are creating glorious products. They are a successful business and are protecting their commercial interests. If you want an application or music on your iPhone, you must purchase it from Apple. It’s a fantastic model which few have replicated in the business world. If you don’t like it, you don’t need to buy an iPhone.

Unfortunately, this hard-nosed business concept conflicts with Apple’s tree-hugging hippy-friendly image. Steve Jobs can’t say he’s “protecting business interests” because he doesn’t want Apple to be seen as another boring IT supplier in the mold of IBM or Microsoft. Instead, Apple have embarked on a moral crusade. They’re “protecting customers” from the evils of bad applications, Flash, offensive content and pornography.

(Of course, if they really want to protect users, Apple should remove Safari or have all internet access routed through a filtering proxy server which blocks offensive content. Perhaps they will?)

Apple has appointed itself as your moral guardian so it must censor content. That’s a risk:

1. How can any commercial company make an unbiased decision about what is or isn’t in your interest?
2. The dividing line between art, pornography, benign content and offensive text is blurred and highly subjective. Yet Apple must make consistent black and white decisions every day.
3. Banned apps and content receive far more publicity than those which are accepted. It can reflect badly on Apple and developers could even start using it to their advantage. For example, why not knock-up an iPhone version of your existing web/desktop application which you know will be banned? The story will raise the profile of your company at Apple’s expense.
4. However, it’s the applications and content Apple accept which could cause the biggest problems. An approved product is rubber-stamped as being of high-quality and containing no dubious content. It’s a huge undertaking and what if I stumble across something which offends me? Does that mean Apple has failed? Can I claim a refund? Can I sue the company?

It’s easy for Apple to manage a few hundred thousand applications while the mobile market is relatively small. But it’s growing fast — how will Apple cope when it’s doubled or tripled?

However, it’s the commercial cost that will ultimately end Apple’s “honorable” intentions. The vast majority of applications in the App Store never make a profit, yet Apple must pay someone to thoroughly check every submission. That cost will grow indefinitely if an application’s acceptance or rejection incurs legal complications.

Censorship is a massive cost for any company and Microsoft should take note (they’re planning similar moralistic rules for Windows 7 Phone apps). It might take a few court cases, but I doubt it has a viable long-term commercial future at Apple.

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Apple dictate stringent application development rules for their hallowed devices. There are too many to list here but, in essence, you must use Apple’s tools, stick to published APIs, not override default applications, not provide language interpreters, not create software emulators and do what you’re told. You can’t create a competing browser but Opera were accepted because:

1. they route traffic through proxy servers which return compressed page content to the device — there’s no local JavaScript engine
2. although it’s faster, Opera is not as seamless and more limited than Safari
3. Opera adhered to the rules and publicised their browser’s submission. Apple had no reasonable arguments for rejecting the browser and knew there would be uproar if they did.

Mozilla has taken a different angle. According to their FAQ:

We do not have plans to ship the Firefox browser for the iPhone. Due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution, we cannot provide users Firefox for the iPhone. Firefox is available for other mobile platforms like Maemo and Android.

Instead, the organization has created an app called Firefox Home which lets you access your desktop browser’s history, bookmarks and open tabs on your iPhone. Effectively, it’s a one-way version of Firefox Sync (previously known as Weave Sync) which is available as an add-on but will eventually be integrated into the browser.

The Firefox Home page viewer uses the native iPhone Safari browser. However, it also offers the “Awesome Bar” (I still hate that name!) so you can access frequently-used websites with a few keystrokes.

On the face of it, there’s no reason why Apple should reject Firefox Home. The app could persuade users to stick with Firefox rather than try Safari on their home PC, but I doubt that would concern Apple. That said, Apple have rejected apps for more arcane reasons.

For more information, visit Firefox Home and read the Mozilla blog post … but avoid their gut-retching cheesy video!

Will Firefox Home be accepted on the iPhone? Would you use it? Will Google and Microsoft be tempted to create similar iPhone apps? Please leave your comments below and cast your vote on the SitePoint home page.

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