How Apple took nine weeks to arbitrarily reject our app
blog.forumwarz.com
blog.forumwarz.com
"We built an iPhone game in just under two days and submitted it to Apple for approval. The concept was a little iffy, but we figured it was worth the gamble. If nothing else, it could attract some attention to our web RPG, Forumwarz."
Mission...accomplished.
For what it's worth, anyone reading the introduction to the 9/2010 app store guidelines would expect the rejection:
http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/files/app-store-guide...
* We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don't need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn't do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted
* If your App looks like it was cobbled together in a few days, or you're trying to get your first practice App into the store to impress your friends, please brace yourself for rejection. We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour.
* If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.
kb
Come back when you have a legit gripe. Just because others get away with something is no reason you should get away with same. "Hey, officer, I saw other people speeding too and you didn't cite them, not fair!"
We were upset because it demonstrates that Apple can effectively make up reasons to block your app when none previously exist.
Moreover, it shows they clearly have no sense of humor.
"Apple reserves the right to refuse..."
I'll bet there's a line in the developer agreement to that effect. A catch-all defense used at times like this. Shouldn't come as any surprise.
But I offer this thought: do you feel like you might tell your kids or grandkids that you remember a time when any of your friends could try out the software your created on their own devices? When anyone had the ability to do whatever they wanted with their devices, without having to agree to a license agreement first?
You can do this with the iPhone right now so long as "your friends" doesn't include all iOS owners.
In any event, it's as if you would deny them "learning". I would refer to any legal code. You can observe it change with time in order to adjust to behavior, attitudes, mores, technology, etc.
Imagine the crime boss "Hey, IRS (the US tax board), that was legal last year, how come you took away my loophole?" Now, granted, the IRS has to go thru a process to implement code changes, but this is an analogy to illustrate that codification requires change over time.
It'd be shortsighted to want to limit the change regimen from ad hoc to periodic, for your convenience.
Sense of humor; is that even germane to anything? Would it have been better if they had cited some cells from xkcd?
> We were upset because it demonstrates that Apple can effectively make up reasons to block your app when none previously exist.
Seems pretty clear to me, unless you're wanting to be pedantic about 'some form of lasting entertainment'. Their bar for this is obviously incredibly low, but you managed to shimmy under it while grinding an axe at the same time. Well done.
That's just good sense. They try to set up the rules as best they can, then some joker comes up with a way to do something that isn't in line with the spirit of the platform but not explicitly forbidden (you can't think of everything). Of course I would expect them to close the loophole at that point and protect the overall environment of the site rather then say "well, this breaks everything but we're so inflexible that we can't fix rules after the fact".
I don't think the "joke" aspect has anything to do with it. We recently had a joke app published on the app store with no problems at all. In fact the first submission of the app came after the rule clarifications they did (last Sept? Oct?). Of course the humor(?) in our app doesn't revolve around ripping people off ("Ha ha...you bought our in-app purchase. Jokes on you!").
I'm actually a little sorry I clicked the original article link. It sounds like they spent two days on something with the specific purpose of getting some publicity around a rejection. Mission accomplished, I guess.
As an iOS developer myself, I respect Apple's power to police the app store as they see fit. It's their platform and they have every right to set the precedent on what content is allowable. Approving your app would spawn numerous clones and obviously Apple doesn't agree with your utilization of in-app purchases.
Cough. Time to go listen to some MP3's, maybe buy a copy of a free-to-air show I've already seen.
I think we reached this conclusion a while back. While many developers may consider it unfair, I should point out that I have never seen a non-gimmicky, high-quality, and polished app face this same predicament of arbitrarily getting rejected. These types of things just don't happen to those stellar apps that have been through a long development process (unlike the one mentioned in this article).
The truth is that arbitrary rejections aren't so arbitrary. You won't see an app like Doodle Jump be rejected, but you may see it happen to a fart app. While Apple doesn't necessarily point out the particular reasons of a rejection every time, most of us can agree that there is a clear distinction between those that are arbitrarily rejected and those that aren't. This goes to show that there is some reasoning behind Apple's decisions.
People need to realize this and understand that there is probably a pretty good reason why their app got rejected - even if Apple doesn't point it out for them.
Walk over here with me, and I can introduce you to the fine folks at a small company called "Sony"
If someone finds a high-quality and useful app that was rejected with no explanation whatsoever, let me know.
"FreedomVoice has so far invested $600,000 and more than half a year in the app."
http://www.mynewber.com/ - they waited 465 days for approval from Apple, no communication, finally gave up.
"It’s an app that effectively turns your iPhone into a second phone line by utilizing the handset’s geographic awareness to move calls between devices"
This is much longer & much more invested and a more serious app than my own first experience (almost 8 months of silence, then rejected because they "weren't accepting any apps with political content" http://handyapp.com/2009/12/and-the-verdict-is/ http://handyapp.com/askobama/).
I have since had better experiences in the AppStore, including an astonishing under 24 hour approval...followed by a couple-of-week approval (http://handyapp.com/merit-badges/)
kb
I have seen it. Moderate 5 figures.
If released, there's a small chance it could become a running joke, especially if you'd promise to donate 50% of profits to charity or something. (Maybe iDonate would be accepted?)
I also really meant what I said about a donations game, it would work in a society where everybody wants the world to know about the good things they do in private.