Gruber is wrong about OpenAppMkt the fight for open is about distribution

OpenAppMkt showed up in my stream today, thanks to Daring Fireball. It’s a great idea, and well executed. They even support selling HTML5 Apps. One key feature is the ability to “route around” Apple.

Daring Fireball is a great blog, and one that I respect, but Gruber made this statement today, “ iOS’s support for mobile web apps — totally open, no gatekeeping — is by design.” (source).

All due respect, but this seems like basic misunderstanding of open. Gruber has argued forcefully that Apple has every right to rule the App Store with an iron fist, and I don’t disagree with that, but you can’t then also say that it is open.

What OpenAppMkt does is route around the App Store, not iOS. iOS has great HTML5 support, but that is not what is in question.

When you look back at history, the means of anything, production, communication, distribution has always been a bigger deal the the individual pieces.

Right now we are seeing the open shots being fired in the battle for control of App distribution.

OpenAppMkt is absolutely routing around Apple, and forcing a fight, that I totally support, about the control of the distribution channel.