Open Radar

 
The MFi program, as it exists today, remains a relic of less open time at Apple. Documentation is locked away behind an obscure web portal. Developers are prohibited from discussing issues or sharing code. Opening up the MFi program, even just a small bit, would be a huge revelation for accessory developers, end users, and Apple itself.

Over the years I’ve seen the same mistakes in MFi implementations from different vendors. There is no *good* shared knowledge base for MFi developers. Everything gets passed around as tribal lore; or, most likely, not at all. Imagine if the really tricky bits of an MFi implementation was documented on StackOverflow? or some helpful developer’s blog? As new developers hit an issue then they are just a web-search away from finding what other developers have done. This helps a final product become more robust; and that’s good for users *and* Apple.

I’m not saying that Apple should abandon the MFi licensing program. That serves as an important quality check for *final* distribution of accessories. But the key word there is *final*. Think of it like app-review.