Dave Or Die... Apple Chooses Dave
In Steve Jobs' essay, titled Thought On Flash, he writes that, "Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards.". He concludes his manifest with, "Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.". In short, Steve wasn't having it, and until very recently, nothing made, or modified, with Flash was in the App Store.
Regardless of your thoughts on the technology, there were a number of people who were negatively affected by Apple's stance. One such developer was down-on-his-luck Dave Lasala.
Dave went through the proverbial ringer to get his app published. Originally a Flash developer, Dave went from Flash, to something called the Torque Game Engine, back to Flash, then after Apple's first rejection of Flash, to Android (coming soon), then finally, with the loosened Flash rules, back to the App Store. The process took all of three years and saw Dave move back and forth through different cities, sleeping on a few different couches because of a lack of funding. There's no way that any human on Earth could capture the frustration that pours out on Dave's essay, titled "The little app that wouldn't die: Dave's Crystal Ball', so be sure to check it out here.
The app itself is a fairly simple fortune telling app that gives you magic 8 ball-like answers. Ask a question (or just get your fortune), hold the crystal ball, and an answer pops up. It definitely has a higher build quality then most of the other fortune-like apps that I've see in the store, but even Dave doesn't have illusions of selling a million copies.
"Dave’s Crystal Ball is in the app store along with a quarter million other apps at this writing. It’s been about five days since it went public and I’ve done a little word-spreading here and there, but the truth is I have no illusions about selling a ____ load of apps quickly. I’m okay with that. I worked hard through a bunch of set backs to make something worthwhile and experienced some small-time enlightenment along the way, but mainly I completed what I set out to do."
Hopefully Dave finds success in the app world and goes on to make some killer apps in the future. I don't know if I would personally have the resilience to stick around making iPhone games after the mess he went through, but hopefully his resolve will bring him good fortune. If anyone in the App Store deserves some good luck in the future, it's probably Dave.