As a developer one of the problems I have had with Apple is their closed App store and the hurdles that you must conquer just to get an app published. Here’s an example of that:

This week cartoonist Mark Fiore made Internet and journalism history as the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Fiore took home the editorial cartooning prize for animations he created for SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I spoke with Fiore about his big win and plans for his business. Fiore is not on staff at the Chronicle, or anywhere else; since 1999, he’s run a syndication business, selling his Flash animations à la carte to TV, newspaper, and magazine websites for about $300 a piece. (The price varies by size of the outlet.) In a typical month, he might have about eight clients. Before 1999, he ran a similar syndication business for his print cartoons, using a lower-price-per-image, higher-volume model.

When I asked about the next phase of his business, curious if it will include a mobile element, Fiore said he’s definitely hopeful about mobile devices. “I think the iPads and anything iPod to iPhone — to maybe a product not made by Apple — will be good or could be good for distributing this kind of thing,” he said.

But there’s just one problem. In December, Apple rejected his iPhone app, NewsToons, because, as Apple put it, his satire “ridicules public figures,” a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which bars any apps whose content in “Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”

So Fiore wins a Pulitzer Prize, yet Apple doesn’t think he’s good enough for their products? We have had editorial cartoons long before computers were even envisioned, let alone electric being a household item or even discovered.

If Apple doesn’t believe their users can handle satire, then what do they trust their users with? I’m sorry, but I would much rather by products from a manufacturer who lets me make my own decisions. That was a big reason for me not getting an IPad. I’m much more interested in the HP Slate or Google Tablet that are coming out later this year and support much more than Apple products.