Thoughts on homebrew apps

I've been thinking about homebrew apps, not only for the DS, but also as a result of the way Apple have treated users over iPhone 3rd party apps and now over the iPod Touch.

I think any mobile or handheld platform needs to give users the ability to do what they want with the device. Sure an iPod is a music player, but a smartphone is a platform, a platform for users to do what they need and want to do, and restricting that doesn't make sense.

I don't buy the whole story about not wanting to compromise the network. If that was the case then why doesn't a Treo pack up all the time? Sure they have their ups and downs and crashes but it is no big deal.

Is it that there's a problem with the OS? Well, maybe. Perhaps the compact OSX under the iPhone and iPod Touch is not quite as robust as we've been told? Could be.

I think that homebrew is an essential component for any platform, and a manufacturer that tries to ignore it or even dismiss it is fooling themselves. If the user community is to make a platform their own and give it real support, then their must be real 3rd party development.