Media & Entertainment

Now that he's talking… Here's 6 Questions Apple's Phil Schiller should answer

Comment

1419588510_efee9580cdSo, apparently, Apple’s Phil Schiller is starting to talk about Apple’s missteps. After months of silence, one of Apple’s top executives (and possibly the most public-facing one next to Jobs) has started to reach out to the tech community to help explain Apple’s numerous, absurdly embarrassing blunders. Some may be satisfied with Schiller slowly sending private e-mails out to various developers and bloggers.

Not me. I want answers. I think many of us do. And not just about specific issues like the banning of one small iPhone app (Ninjawords). Not just one private e-mail to one developer which the rest of us can’t even read. That’s helpful, granted. And I’m stoked that Schiller was willing to take out the time. But while he’s at it, I think the general public of Apple products users would love to know a lot more. At the very least, I know I would.

So here are 6 questions for Apple’s Phil Schiller that I would really love to know the answer to. Feel free to add to the list in the comments.

(Mind you, I don’t expect to get answers on all of these right away, but eventually would be nice).

(Oh, and some of these are for AT&T also. Primarily because, as far as I’m concerned, they are both accountable for each other’s failures.)

1. What is your App Store policy? Specifically, how do you determine whether apps in the App Store are rejected or accepted? Additionally, why even bother taking on the liability and responsibility of making such determinations? It may have sounded like a good idea at first, but do you still think this is the best course of action given the App Store’s incredible success?

2. I know you won’t answer this, but how my mouth waters at the thought of even asking this question: what does Apple say to the serious anti-trust and anti-competitive allegations brought against it in recent years? If you’re asking “what anti-trust and anti-competitive allegations” please read: 1) Jason Calacanis’s post and 2) the FCC’s concerns about Apple’s blocking of Google Voice.

3. What are you doing about the complaints? Steve Frank wrote in his blog that Apple is “taking these complaints seriously.” How so? What is Apple doing – or going to do – to rebuild relationships with the community?

4. What involvement does AT&T have in the App Store process? They’ve said publicly that they are not involved in the process. I have my doubts. What does Apple say about AT&T’s involvement?

5. Why are developers still complaining about late payments? The last time we wrote about this was months ago, but since then I’ve spoken privately with many developers who say this is still going on. I’ve also heard from these same developers that the App Store review process has taken weeks (sometimes more than a month): is any effort being made to improve this turnaround time?

6. What is the deal with the exploding iDevices and how widespread is the problem? Has Apple taken any action to decrease the risk of overheating in its devices? This isn’t a new problem. Apple has had overheating issues for a while. What are you changing hardware-wise to fix this?

It is obvious that many of these questions will not get answered, but it would be nice if someone at Apple at least spoke to the general principles. Publicly.

In the meantime, MobileCrunch readers: feel free to comment on what questions you may want answered. If you come up with some good ones, I’ll add them to the list.

Phil: My e-mail address is gaganATcrunchgearDOTcom, in case you are willing to address some of these questions.

[Flickr / marzipanguy]

More TechCrunch

The announcement signifies a significant shake-up in the streaming giant’s advertising approach.

Netflix to take on Google and Amazon by building its own ad server

It’s tough to say that a $100 billion business finds itself at a critical juncture, but that’s the case with Amazon Web Services, the cloud arm of Amazon, and the…

Matt Garman taking over as CEO with AWS at crossroads

Back in February, Google paused its AI-powered chatbot Gemini’s ability to generate images of people after users complained of historical inaccuracies. Told to depict “a Roman legion,” for example, Gemini would show…

Google still hasn’t fixed Gemini’s biased image generator

A feature Google demoed at its I/O confab yesterday, using its generative AI technology to scan voice calls in real time for conversational patterns associated with financial scams, has sent…

Google’s call-scanning AI could dial up censorship by default, privacy experts warn

Google’s going all in on AI — and it wants you to know it. During the company’s keynote at its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google mentioned “AI” more than…

The top AI announcements from Google I/O

Uber is taking a shuttle product it developed for commuters in India and Egypt and converting it for an American audience. The ride-hail and delivery giant announced Wednesday at its…

Uber has a new way to solve the concert traffic problem

Here are quick hits of the biggest news from the keynote as they are announced.

Google I/O 2024: Here’s everything Google just announced

Google is preparing to launch a new system to help address the problem of malware on Android. Its new live threat detection service leverages Google Play Protect’s on-device AI to…

Google takes aim at Android malware with an AI-powered live threat detection service

Users will be able to access the AR content by first searching for a location in Google Maps.

Google Maps is getting geospatial AR content later this year

The heat pump startup unveiled its first products and revealed details about performance, pricing and availability.

Quilt heat pump sports sleek design from veterans of Apple, Tesla and Nest

The space is available from the launcher and can be locked as a second layer of authentication.

Google’s new Private Space feature is like Incognito Mode for Android

Gemini, the company’s family of generative AI models, will enhance the smart TV operating system so it can generate descriptions for movies and TV shows.

Google TV to launch AI-generated movie descriptions

When triggered, the AI-powered feature will automatically lock the device down.

Android’s new Theft Detection Lock helps deter smartphone snatch and grabs

The company said it is increasing the on-device capability of its Google Play Protect system to detect fraudulent apps trying to breach sensitive permissions.

Google adds live threat detection and screen-sharing protection to Android

This latest release, one of many announcements from the Google I/O 2024 developer conference, focuses on improved battery life and other performance improvements, like more efficient workout tracking.

Wear OS 5 hits developer preview, offering better battery life

For years, Sammy Faycurry has been hearing from his registered dietitian (RD) mom and sister about how poorly many Americans eat and their struggles with delivering nutritional counseling. Although nearly…

Dietitian startup Fay has been booming from Ozempic patients and emerges from stealth with $25M from General Catalyst, Forerunner

Apple is bringing new accessibility features to iPads and iPhones, designed to cater to a diverse range of user needs.

Apple announces new accessibility features for iPhone and iPad users

TechCrunch Disrupt, our flagship startup event held annually in San Francisco, is back on October 28-30 — and you can expect a bustling crowd of thousands of startup enthusiasts. Exciting…

Startup Blueprint: TC Disrupt 2024 Builders Stage agenda sneak peek!

Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Instagram and, more recently, the co-founder of personalized news app Artifact (which TechCrunch corporate parent Yahoo recently acquired), is joining Anthropic as the…

Anthropic hires Instagram co-founder as head of product

Seven orgs so far have signed on to standardize the way data is collected and shared.

Venture orgs form alliance to standardize data collection

As cloud adoption continues to surge toward the $1 trillion mark in annual spend, we’re seeing a wave of enterprise startups gaining traction with customers and investors for tools to…

Alkira connects with $100M for a solution that connects your clouds

Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight.

Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers

So did investors laugh them out of the room when they explained how they wanted to replace Quickbooks? Kind of.

Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing QuickBooks

While an increasing number of companies are investing in AI, many are struggling to get AI-powered projects into production — much less delivering meaningful ROI. The challenges are many. But…

Weka raises $140M as the AI boom bolsters data platforms

PayHOA, a previously bootstrapped Kentucky-based startup that offers software for self-managed homeowner associations (HOAs), is an example of how real-world problems can translate into opportunity. It just raised a $27.5…

Meet PayHOA, a profitable and once-bootstrapped SaaS startup that just landed a $27.5M Series A

Restaurant365, which offers a restaurant management suite, has raised a hot $175M from ICONIQ Growth, KKR and L Catterton.

Restaurant365 orders in $175M at $1B+ valuation to supersize its food service software stack 

Venture firm Shilling has launched a €50M fund to support growth-stage startups in its own portfolio and to invest in startups everywhere else. 

Portuguese VC firm Shilling launches €50M opportunity fund to back growth-stage startups

Chang She, previously the VP of engineering at Tubi and a Cloudera veteran, has years of experience building data tooling and infrastructure. But when She began working in the AI…

LanceDB, which counts Midjourney as a customer, is building databases for multimodal AI

Trawa simplifies energy purchasing and management for SMEs by leveraging an AI-powered platform and downstream data from customers. 

Berlin-based trawa raises €10M to use AI to make buying renewable energy easier for SMEs

Lydia is splitting itself into two apps — Lydia for P2P payments and Sumeria for those looking for a mobile-first bank account.

Lydia, the French payments app with 8 million users, launches mobile banking app Sumeria