Apple: “We’ve rejected your Application, but ‘Shhh …’ you can’t tell anyone.”

Posted on September 24th, 2008. Written by Arron.

In a controversial move, Apple in response to bad press it has been receiving from people re-publishing it’s support e-mails, has now stated ‘App Store Rejection Notifications’ are not to be shared due to it’s NDA policy …

Recently, we’ve seen a slurry of iPhone applications get ‘rejected’ by Apple for seemingly unethical reasons. A great example of this is MailWrangler. Designed and developed by Angelo Dinardi, the application was meant to enable a user to add their GMail accounts (standard and Google Apps For Your Domain) which you could load and switch between quickly. Apple rejected the application stating:

“… Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. …”

Another example of this type of rejection is Podcaster. Developed by a small unknown developer, the application served to be an application which allowed you to subscribe, manage, stream and download podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod Touch. A video of which can be seen here.
Again, Apple replied to the developer stating the reason for rejection:

“Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

Wait a minute, I thought we were on about an iPhone application here? – Get the drift? Apple seem to be abusing their right to play ‘Gate Keeper’. Applications are being rejected simple because they compete with Apple’s default applications or services. Why? – I thought competition was healthy? – Look at the App Store, were would we be without the competition between Flashlight apps? – Well .. err .. a lot better off probably ..

We also recently found out Apple have a gauge on an application’s ‘utility’ to the user. Pull my finger was rejected, and the letter was publicly published:

“Hello Developer,

We’ve reviewed your application Pull My Finger. We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store.

It may be very appropriate to share with friends and family, and we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing.

Regards,

Victor Wang
Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple, Inc.”

Source

Although I question the utility of the above application myself, it’s still laughable applications like flashlight’s (which are basically blank white jpegs or gifs) can get through Apple’s review process, and applications which would have actually served a valid purpose, are getting rejected.

Anyway, from now on Apple are said to be attaching the following line to the bottom on each App Store rejection reply they issue:

“THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE”

Now reinforcing that, the NDA document which prohibits developers in their ADC (Apple Developer Connection) to share any information with the outside world, covers rejection e-mails.

So if you are a developer, and you have a big following of an upcoming application, you can rest in the awesome fact that if you do get rejected, you can no longer tell anyone.

Great Apple, really fantastic, thanks for that. …

Has your application been rejected? – We want to know about it.
leave a comment below ..