TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Rob Rhyne’s Briefs iPhone application is the perfect example of what’s wrong with the App Store:

At WWDC I was connected with two developer evangelists and eventually the director of the App store to discuss Briefs’ prospects. All three were very encouraging and helpful. This was in addition to several Apple engineers detailing their use of Briefs for company efforts. I left the conference with hope that differences could be resolved and Briefs would be up for sale.

That was until a few weeks later, when I was told (by the director himself) that the review had reached the “executive level.” Considering he reports directly to an Executive Vice President within Apple, I have every reason to believe him. Unfortunately two and half months have transpired since reaching the executive review. (and what a two and a half months it has been for Apple executives!) I have not completely given up hope, but it is time to move on.

So: his (incredible) application has been sitting in review for months, he’s handled the situation with great patience and class, and yet he still has no answer. Out of frustration he’s decided to open source the application.

This is absolutely unacceptable. The iOS platform’s biggest threat isn’t Android—it’s Apple’s own capricious review process. Why should developers put as much effort into building a great application (as Rhyne clearly did) when there’s no way to know whether it will even end up on the App Store?

News to Apple: for whatever dumb reason you think Briefs is a threat to the platform (or a number of other applications), treating developers like this is an exponentially greater threat.