Over the last several years Apple has been the dominate player in the digital music and smartphone markets, introducing cutting edge products such as the iPod and iPhone with huge success.

Now their dominance in this market is being threatened from many different rivals and people who have found a way to jailbreak these phones then sell the different apps online.  Underscoring the need for Apple to come up with other ways that developers can have their apps used by Apple instead of other competitors.

Recent evidence of this occurred when Cydia announced that they will launching a web site that will compete directly with the Apple iTunes store. They will be offering some of the many different applications that Apple does not have at its web site such as PDANet that works as a Wi-Fi internet connection for your computer and Qik which video feed onto the internet.

While Apple has said they would have a remedy for this problem by September 2008, a solution has not came and there is no time table form the company as to when it will be easier for developers to have their apps on the company’s web site.

Over the past year the amount of time it took for Apple to approve a developer’s app went from two day to several weeks.

Now with contracts expiring and many stores complaining about the length of time to get first time applications approved this is creating massive amounts of frustration. As one such developer told Apple Insider, “Many developers are pulling their hair out by the roots. Our corporate contract, submitted around December of last year, has yet to be approved after more than two months. And this is merely for a free app!”

What this shows is that in spite of the company’s success with I Phone, they are now loosing the edge that they once had when they first introduced these products, forcing many developers to submit their apps to other sites such as Cydia.

While the company can still turn things around, it is clear that Apple needs to quickly approve the apps for developers. Otherwise there is a very realistic possibility that they could loose market share as more developers and users turn to other competitors who can give them the apps that they want.

Source: ECanadaNow