re nightmare
Maybe Apple's delay in getting folks set up with certificates for signing apps is that Apple is verifying the developers and not their apps. In that case, once folks are set up in the system, they can post and withdraw and update apps all they please. This is actually a pretty good strategy for avoiding malware posing as real applications, but it creates up-front delays. Someone at Apple has to make decisions about whether a developer is "real" or not.
There are antispam solutions I've seen that don't inspect mail content, but the trustworthiness of the server delivering the message. If Apple is in effect building a whitelist of developers, it might take a while for Apple to roll this out. I hadn't thought about this aspect of the store, but they have to be trying to trust developers (the signature) rather than the applications, which of course can have bugs and which may be far too complex to seriously evaluate for "suitability".
Apple will probably let enterprises sign apps for use within their enterprises very quickly, as it doesn't impact Apple's work on the App Store and will enable third parties to work up demand for iPhones. What I'm interested in is whether Apple's setup poses a barrier to genuine developers. I think the $99 probably weeds out not-serious folks, while funding some human intervention to check out applications.
I hope Apple doesn't screw the pooch on this one. I'd love to see it become a major business. I'm just too skeptical of Apple's dedication to developments thrust upon Apple, after seeing MS-Active Directory compatibility sit incomplete for so long. If Apple wanted integration it'd not have left the solution in a state that required supportive intervention by MS-Windows administrators.
Take care,
--Tex.
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