Apple Policies Frustrate Facebook’s Hewitt

Joe Hewitt, the Facebook developer who had been leading the social-networking site’s project to develop the Facebook iPhone app, hung up on Apple Wednesday, TechCrunch reported.

Hewitt sent a tweet Wednesday that read:

Time for me to try something new. I’ve handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I’m onto a new project.

When contacted by TechCrunch, Hewitt elaborated:

My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want. However, I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.

The Web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a Web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the Web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.

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