

Why Apple Nixed My iPhone App - iseff
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/09/why_apple_rejected_my_iphone_app.html?ana=from_rss

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pyre
The real issue is that there is no discussion happening between Apple's
AppStore approval staff and the developers. If there was 2-way communication
between the two the developer would know fairly quickly whether or not this
was Apple having an over-reachingly broad policy, or just an Apple employee
misinterpreting the policy.

I think that Apple is running into the same problem that the patent office
has. Everybody can't be an expert on everything, and it's increasingly
expensive to hire experts to do mind-numbingly boring work like shuffling
through applications (software or patent) to approve based on rather broad
criteria. Not only that, but there is pressure to just push things through the
pipeline (whether they are approved or rejected).

In this case, it's entirely possible that the employee that rejected the app
knows there is a program called Bitwise, and thought that this app was trying
to tag along on that popularity (I guess?) not realizing that bitwise is a
generic term. It might be a different story if he was _naming_ his app
Bitwise, vs just adding it as a search keyword.

But all of this could be solved through 2-way communication and making
AppStore developers feel like valued business partners -- they are business
partners with Apple afterall. Even the US Patent Office -- for all its ills --
has an amount of communication between the patent reviewer and the patent
applicant.

If the AppStore reviewer fired off an email or phone call to the developer
saying, "Your app seems great, but we don't like the keyword 'bitwise' in
there because it's referring to another application," the developer could
immediately respond with, "But 'bitwise' is a generic term that describes the
functionality of my app. Wikipedia/Google it."

As it stands, the developer feels like Apple is talking down to him/her from
'on high,' decreeing that this app does not seem worthy of the AppStore.
Without communication, the developer feels powerless to affect the outcome of
the approval process, and gets frustrated at minor details like this which
would probably be cleared up over a couple of emails instead of forcing the
developer to resubmit his app in the 'Apple approved way' (even though his way
might be perfectly fine, and the reviewer was only mistaken).

~~~
blasdel
_The real issue is that there is no discussion happening between Apple's
AppStore approval staff and the developers_

From outward appearances it doesn't look like the AppStore reviewers are even
talking to each other! Each one is zealously applying their own capricious
interpretation of the policies to deny apps.

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puredemo
This is a terrible, unilateral, knee-jerk methodology to determine application
eligibility. It seems that apple is constantly creating lose/lose situations
in which the developers have zero recourse for their strongly legitimate
complaints.

~~~
b-man
Yeah, this is fascism in miniature. Imagine a large scale experiment on that
philosophy. Welcome to Italy, circa 1919.

~~~
jsz0
Luckily it's just a cell phone and there are plenty of alternatives.

~~~
elai
Unfortunately, as a market, the iPhone app store is fairly unique.

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sfphotoarts
I'm so bored of the YAIDC syndrome (yet another iPhone developer complaining)
here on HN...

~~~
chaosprophet
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure after all that complaining he still went ahead,
removed the keyword and submitted the app. I'd say if you're going to bow down
to Apple then you have no right complaining.

~~~
roc
People _only_ complain when they _want_ to keep using the product/service in
question and are unwilling to take things to an extreme conclusion.

E.g. When people have a bad experience at the theatre, the only ones who
complain at the service desk are those who will return regardless.

The people who've had enough just quietly walk out and never return.

~~~
sfphotoarts
I'm not sure I buy into this piece of psychology.

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cesare
Why didn't they just approve the app and remove the incriminated keyword?

~~~
cakesy
Because business doesn't work like that. You can't go around changing someone
application, or removing words from the description that you don't like. That
is really bad. They have given the guy the option to resubmit, so all that
happens is his app is a couple of weeks late.

~~~
cesare
Right.

On the other hand, in this case it was a search keyword, not a word in the
description.

They could add a disclaimer to reserve the right to remove _inappropriate_
keywords.

Asking the developer to do so and resubmit the app is a waste of time for both
parties.

~~~
jonursenbach
Dude, welcome to the status quo.

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tlrobinson
I wouldn't expect the average application reviewer to know what "bitwise"
means. If he responded explaining it and they still didn't allow it that would
be worthy of a rant.

~~~
andrew1
I would expect that the average application reviewer has access to a
dictionary though.

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joshhart
Perhaps this is really naive, but why haven't any lawsuits been brought up
regarding the app store? Maybe they have but I haven't heard of them?

~~~
ubernostrum
How would you build a legal basis for asserting that you have a right to force
Apple to accept, approve and distribute your software against their desires?

~~~
joezydeco
Especially when you signed away all those rights in the developer agreement
(or so I've been told).

------
4chan4ever
Does anybody else feel like there's just been a rash of this kind of stuff
lately? Apple really seems to be dropping the ball on a number of issues.
Whether it's the attempted trademarking of "glossy chat bubbles", lethargic
update cycles, or app rejection decisions like the one in this article, I
really feel like the Apple user and developer experience has soured. I think
the iPhone store (and the iPhone phenomenon) is perilously close to jumping
the shark.

Android, anyone?

