Apple Censors App Store Rejection Notices

isBandGeek() writes "After a few reasonable App Store bans, such as the ones on I Am Rich and NetShare, developers started complaining about excessive restrictions on applications like Podcaster and MailWrangler, supposedly because they provided 'duplicate functionality.' In response, Apple rubbed salt in their wounds by slapping non-disclosure agreements on application rejection notices. Now developers are not even allowed to tell their fanbase that Apple decided to withhold approval for an application. Is Apple confident that Google's open platform Android won't be much of a threat?"

Comments

What happens if you don't agree?

[Brian Kendig]

What happens if you don't agree to a non-disclosure agreement on the rejection notice you receive?

Usually NDAs have to be signed before you get access to see cool secret stuff. But what if the only thing you're agreeing to is to be rejected?

Re:What happens if you don't agree?

[Anonymous Coward]

You agreed to take it up the ass from apple the moment you accepted the SDK.

AC for obvious reasons.

Re:What happens if you don't agree?

[tgd]

Click through EULAs have been deemed to be unenforcable.

I'd be willing to bet that their NDA would be if push came to shove as well.

And you can't retroactively add things under NDA.

Why does Apple get a free pass?

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Because they make cool *looking* equipment? If M$ did this, people would be all over them. Jobs is not known for working and playing well with others, but people just wink at the silliness because they like the shiny gadgets.

Re:well

[ShieldW0lf]

Gee, this makes me want to rush out and develop for that platform. Right after I finish strapping the wings on to this pig...

irrational...

[Xiph1980]

It may be just me but I really don't get why apple has such a big fanbase, seeing as how they treat their customers...

What else do you expect...

[iamapizza]

I hear that the Apple NDAs are sent in glossy white envelopes to the developers, with the Apple logo on the outside and a grouping of pointless logic on the inside. But at least it looks good, so let's blame it on Microsoft anyways.

Re:well

[XxtraLarGe]

You sign the NDA by default if you download & install the developer tools.

Ha ha, oh man!

[ZorbaTHut]

Apple? Abusing their power to keep people from talking about their product in any way that is not authorized by the Apple marketing department? Why, I can't tell you how long it's been since I've heard a similar story about them doing this sort of thing!

No, I don't mean it's been a long time. I mean I literally can't tell you. I'm not legally allowed to.

Sorry.

(Joking . . . mostly.)

Well, duh!

[David Gerard]

"Fuck it, we're evil," said Steve Jobs to an audience of soul-mortgaged thralls. "But our stuff is sooo good. You'll keep taking our abuse. You love it, you worm. Because our stuff is great. It's shiny and it's pretty and it's cool and it works. It's not like youâ(TM)ll go back to a Windows Mobile phone. Ha! Ha!"

It's foolish to have expected anything else. As Neal Stephenson put it in In The Beginning Was The Command Line:

THE NOT-SO-CHARITABLE EXPLANATION has to do with Apple's corporate culture, which is rooted in Bay Area Baby Boomdom.

Now, since I'm going to talk for a moment about culture, full disclosure is probably in order, to protect myself against allegations of conflict of interest and ethical turpitude: (1) Geographically I am a Seattleite, of a Saturnine temperament, and inclined to take a sour view of the Dionysian Bay Area, just as they tend to be annoyed and appalled by us. (2) Chronologically I am a post-Baby Boomer. I feel that way, at least, because I never experienced the fun and exciting parts of the whole Boomer scene--just spent a lot of time dutifully chuckling at Boomers' maddeningly pointless anecdotes about just how stoned they got on various occasions, and politely fielding their assertions about how great their music was. But even from this remove it was possible to glean certain patterns, and one that recurred as regularly as an urban legend was the one about how someone would move into a commune populated by sandal-wearing, peace-sign flashing flower children, and eventually discover that, underneath this facade, the guys who ran it were actually control freaks; and that, as living in a commune, where much lip service was paid to ideals of peace, love and harmony, had deprived them of normal, socially approved outlets for their control-freakdom, it tended to come out in other, invariably more sinister, ways.

Applying this to the case of Apple Computer will be left as an exercise for the reader, and not a very difficult exercise.

It is a bit unsettling, at first, to think of Apple as a control freak, because it is completely at odds with their corporate image. Weren't these the guys who aired the famous Super Bowl ads showing suited, blindfolded executives marching like lemmings off a cliff? Isn't this the company that even now runs ads picturing the Dalai Lama (except in Hong Kong) and Einstein and other offbeat rebels?

It is indeed the same company, and the fact that they have been able to plant this image of themselves as creative and rebellious free-thinkers in the minds of so many intelligent and media-hardened skeptics really gives one pause. It is testimony to the insidious power of expensive slick ad campaigns and, perhaps, to a certain amount of wishful thinking in the minds of people who fall for them. It also raises the question of why Microsoft is so bad at PR, when the history of Apple demonstrates that, by writing large checks to good ad agencies, you can plant a corporate image in the minds of intelligent people that is completely at odds with reality. (The answer, for people who don't like Damoclean questions, is that since Microsoft has won the hearts and minds of the silent majority--the bourgeoisie--they don't give a damn about having a slick image, any more then Dick Nixon did. "I want to believe,"--the mantra that Fox Mulder has pinned to his office wall in The X-Files--applies in different ways to these two companies; Mac partisans want to believe in the image of Apple purveyed in those ads, and in the notion that Macs are somehow fundamentally different from other computers, while Windows people want to believe that they are getting something for their money, engaging in a respectable business transaction).

It's as applicable now as it was in the late 1990s. That bit of Apple's corporate culture is straight from Steve Jobs.

That is an analysts opinion

[SmallFurryCreature]

An analysts opinion isn't worth the paper it is printed on, and this opinion ain't even printed.

Both phones are less then perfect and missing some "we don't think you need this, so you don't get it" features.

But the analyst is an idiot because he talks about the lack of iTunes. Yeah, because people care about that. Oh, they don't. First off, most music on digital players is ripped from CD's, or obtained through other means in mp3 format. iTunes is very small potatoes in the global music industry and even Apple knows that the iPod a far bigger player in the digital music player isn't always going to be used for iTunes content, which is why Apple gives you the tools needed to convert iTunes music to MP3 format or burn it to a CD.

The idea that a new platform needs to be compatible with iTunes is silly.

The bigger problem is lack of office compatibiltiy. While MS does offer you ways to export your documents in more general formats, that could be the real killer. The iPhone is bought by people who buy Apple and so accept that it is NOT going to be all that compatible with MS software. But android doesn't have the Apple logo, what is its excuse for not being MS compatible?

In a way, I don't think the iPhone and Android are even competitors. iPhone is a single product offered by a company that has no other phones. Android is a platform that any phone maker can use. It would be like saying the Smart Car competes with Honda Engines. Does the iPhone compete with Windows Mobile or Symbian? No, it competes with other phones, specific models, not OS/Platforms. if this google phone fails, there are plenty of others coming out soon, while Apple can hardly afford to start making dozens of phones and a new one every season to suit the tastes of the customer. Neither can google, but the phonemakers can.

Re:Simple really.

[srmalloy]

The first rule about Apps Store is, you do not talk about Apps Store.

Re:well

[Don_dumb]

But that's the beauty of 'Open' and why Apple are (hopefully) shooting themselves in the foot with this kind of tactic.
You see most of the critisms that article put at the Android phone were of particular features not included or limited, if the Android does what it claims to then people can simply write an app that performs that feature and there is nothing stopping them releasing it. However, if that feature is lacking on the iPhone or deliberately lacking(many of the critisms were also true of the iPhone) then Apple can prevent it being released.

Therefore the Android has the unrestricted potential of fulfilling all of the lacking features whereas Apple will prevent the iPhone from fulfilling that same potential.

I like many Apple products but this is my classic annoyance - they could be so much better if Apple didn't hold them back so much.

Re:well

[larry bagina]

In order to get rejected (or accepted) from the apple store, you need to pay $99 to join the iphone developer progeam, which involves accepting the terms. While there is no pen and ink signature, you need to unambiguously accept the terms.

Re:well

[elrous0]

It doesn't have to hold up in court. Merely the threat of a lawsuit from the wealthy and powerful Apple will silence most small developers. Sure, you would probably win the case in the end, but only after paying lawyers a small fortune to defend you against Apple. And where are you going to get that kind of money if you're just some programmer or tiny company?

I'm a Mac

[elrous0]

I'm a PC

And I'm a Mac

I run almost all business software and games

AND I'LL SUE YOUR ASS IF YOU TELL ANYONE!

Interview for iPhone developers

[MosesJones]

Interviewer: So it says here you've been developing for the iPhone for 2 years
Developer: Yup that's right

I: So what applications have you written
D: I've written applications around complex gene folding, stock prediction and a massively multi-player online game

I: Great, can I get them from the App Store
D: I can't say

I: Why not?
D: I can't say

I: Why?
D: There is an NDA covering whether I submitted them and whether they rejected them

I: Can you show me the code?
D: Err no

I: Why?
D: Because I'm not allowed to share things with other developers

I: Why?
D: That's in the NDA too

I: So in summary you say you've written some amazing applications but can't prove it and they aren't on the app store
D: Correct

I: So why should I believe you
D: Would anyone who hadn't done iPhone development have bothered to read the NDA?

I: Good point, you're hired.

Canary?

[TaoPhoenix]

What about the Canary approach?

1. "I promise under penalty of Perjury not to actively state a false status of my app. with Apple."

2.
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."
"Today I was not declined by Apple."

3. ( ... Crickets ... )

Re:well

[electrictroy]

Precisely.

A few years ago when Paypal was taken to court, most of the "user agreement" was thrown-out since it violated state or federal laws. The judge decided that consumers can not sign-away their legal protections. Apple's unsigned or shrinkwrapped NDA would also be thrown-out for similar reasons.

And to be honest, even if I was legally-bound to the NDA, I'd still disclose the whys and wherefores of my application rejection. From time-to-time, liberty must be protected with a little civil disobedience in order to protect one's rights, privileges, and freedoms.

Re:well

[3dr]

I, too, have been working on three apps, and have put them on hold.

The seemingly arbitrary blocking/rejection of certain apps makes me wonder just what their criteria is. For some, such as the net tethering application, it is obvious (direct competition/avoidance of AT&T's minutes plans). But for other apps, what is the criteria?

It is starting to look like the iphone app market is closing, because if Apple is declaring certain apps to be "duplicate functionality", then how can competition have a role?

The developers who were first to the store have all the advantage right now. I.e., timing, not functionality or merit, is key. Apple should clarify exactly what they are doing, which policies they are employing to make this determination.

Maybe I'll just write some "flashlight" apps -- those always get accepted. /rolls eyes

Re:well

[tmosley]

Well, I am a business man, and work for a corporation that deals regularly with NDAs and IP. If there is no signature, it's just a statement, and won't hold up in court. We have had lots of companies try to steal our IP, so I am fairly well versed in the intricacies of such agreements, and the implications of not having one.