You can request Apple to do a "fast" review to release an urgent update :)

How does that work if everybody does it? I think Vine is a good position in this, since they're kinda "famous".

You can request it. It doesn't mean the request will be accepted. Unless you are big, can demonstrate an external deadline, or have a bug with nasty consequences (it seems "app crash at launch" is not enough, I got a request denied for that), your request will probably be denied.

Mobile software != web site.

Get over it. It's Apple's platform. Move on...

Why should I get over it and move on? It sucks and I'm going to keep complaining as long as it does.

Linux software also != website but doesn't suffer from these problems. Current mobile software really sucks in pretty much every way and there's nothing more to be said.

> Current mobile software really sucks in pretty much every way and there's nothing more to be said

I don't know what perspective you are coming at this from, but from my experience with non-technical iOS users, installing/managing/removing mobile software in a safe manner is a much better experience than compared to their PC's. My grandparents are fully capable of managing software on their iPhones - if I asked them to do the same on Linux...

If safety for noobs is the rationale then why can't they ship iOS with a deep down hidden switch that allows side-loading?

To keep out the noobs they could make it require a command line tool and display an extra scary warning and have it void the warranty.

I don't see why we should all need to suffer because of the majority's ignorance.

Recent changes to iOS allow side-loading[1]. In answer to your point about the majority's ignorance, I suspect the reasons are varied but if there's a way to circumvent these kind of protections, non-technical users can be coerced into doing so. An example is Facebook disabling the developer console in the browser after users were coerced into using it against themselves[2].

[1] http://bouk.co/blog/sideload-iphone/ [2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21692646/how-does-faceboo...

While that might be true in theory, in practice app stores aren't much safer then Linux package managers are.

Just because that is the case, doesn't mean it has to be this way, or that it's OK.

The sad thing is, we all have to accept that mobile App Stores are not a "real software market". Mobile Apps are more like Plugins to some platform controlled by someone else.

Still, i'm sad about this.

This is not sad.

Children dying from starvation is sad. War is sad.

Get over it...