App Glore! Apple Approves Facebook, Spotify

Either Apple is getting soft or a lot of us have overreacted to the recent app rejection by the company. Facebook 3.0 and Spotify have been both approved by Apple and added to the iTunes. Technically, Apple could have found an excuse to reject both apps, but since it’s not in business to reject apps, we get to see these two powerful apps on our iPhones today. I have covered Facebook 3.0 in the past few weeks, and it’s certainly an app that will dominate the most-used apps chart for weeks to come. Spotify is an interesting app that has been waiting to be approved for a while now. It’s a surprise that Apple allowed it since it will be competing with Apple iTunes, but the last thing Apple needs these days is yet another controversy.

Facebook 3.0:

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites around, and many people use their iPhone to update their status and share information with their friends on Facebook. Facebook 3.0 for iPhone has been improved to allow Facebookers to easily share videos and handle events on their smart-phones. Facebook is gearing itself up for more community content, and Facebook 3.0 is a good move in that direction. The downside? The app is currently not too stable and has crashed on me a few times.

Spotify: Spotify is a very interesting music app that was in limbo for a while before Apple decided to give it its blessing. Spotify gives users the ability to stream music free to their computers, all supported by its ad system. Let’s not forget that RealNetworks is too hoping to get a piece of the pie here, so it’d be interesting to see how Apple deals with that app. One thing is for certain however. Music subscriptions are finally on iPhone.

Apple’s behavior in the past few weeks has been nothing short of bizarre. Grappling with Google over Google Voice, rejecting GV apps, and then letting Spotify pass are all interesting developments. I suspect Apple’s being a bit careful with its rejections. I am sure more GV-like apps will be rejected in the future. But at the same time, Apple doesn’t want to go overboard with the FCC and authorities watching its every move closely. In the end, how these apps got approved does not even matter. The fact that they are here is all we should care about.