There seems to be a lot of discussion lately about the Apple iTunes App Store. A lot of people are upset because Apple has control of the distribution of the application, they can not publish an application if they decide to, the SDK is too restrictive on preventing developers from sharing ideas and solutions to common problems.
I am split on it, with myself siding slightly in favor of the App Store. Yes, I do agree that there are some issues with it, but I think overall the benefits right now do outweigh the drawbacks.
1. Yes, Apple does control the applications that are available on the store, and to me this is a good idea to ensure that the applications are not going to cause problems on the iPhone. The biggest drawback I've seen so far is that the review process seems to be really not that thorough, in fact I kind of wonder what they are actually doing. I've had a few apps that are totally blowing up my iPhone due to memory leaks. I've NEVER seen memory errors before, but after recent updates to a few apps I have. I've deleted the apps for now until they are fixed.
2. One big plus of all apps coming through the app store is that it's easy to check for updates, and if you lose an app (or accidently delete it) it's simply a matter of redownloading it and installing it. You don't have to keep track of serial numbers or activate the apps.
3. The review process for apps is painfully slow, I've seen several apps take almost 2 weeks for an update to be released after being submitted. After number 2 of apps having memory leaks, or outright crashing constantly, I again wonder what the review process consists of.
4. I agree that the SDK should be modified now that the new 3G and Version 2 software has been released, I'm honestly surprised that it hasn't yet, and I'm holding out hope that it will be coming shortly.
For the most part though the app store has been a very pleasant and seamless experience for me.