Apple’s App Store Rejections Raises Concern from Developers
Apple already riased concerns from develoers when they started to reject submissions to its App Store retail outlet without explaining why. And the latest rejection enraged some more developers and triggered an protests from concerned developers.
Apple rejected an app called Podcaster because it “duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.” Which is either extremely suspect or just someone at Apple not understanding the difference between what the app does and what the podcast section of iTunes does.
The developer of the said app published the rejection letter which cites duplication of iTunes functionality for the reason for rejection:
Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.
Another iPhone App Developer Fraser Speirs, the developer who brought us Exposure - the excellent Flickr client for the iPhone - is outraged by this latest incident. Speirs voiced out some of his suggections:
Apple’s current practice of rejecting certain applications at the final hurdle — submission to the App Store — is disastrous for investor confidence. Developers are investing time and resources in the App Store marketplace and, if developers aren’t confident, they won’t invest in it. If developers — and serious developers at that — don’t invest, what’s the point?
You have to wonder if Apple wants the App Store to be a museum of poorly-designed nibware written by dilettante Mac OS X/iPhone OS switcher-developers and hobbyist students. That’s what will happen if companies who intend to invest serious resources in bringing an original idea to the App Store are denied a reasonable level of confidence in their expectation of profit.
Speirs is right, if a developer only find out at the end of the development process that their app has been rejected — not for a technical problem that you can address but because Apple deems the entire concept to be out of bounds — then who is going to put serious time and talent into an iPhone app?
Apple needs to fix this problem before it comes out of hand. Maybe there are still a few developes protesting but that is all it takes to make the ball rolling. Apple needs developers to populate their App store but if they continue this kind of rejection and bannings then I doubt that we’ll ever see some more great Apps in the Ap store. Who would ever waste their time and resources developing something if they are not sure that Apple will approve it?
Wake up Apple!
note: The developer has started to distribute the app via the Ad Hoc Method. If you would like to purchase a copy, please head over to http://www.nextdayoff.com.
