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How To Get Rejected From the App Store

Posted by timothy on from the feature-the-steve-in-green-turtleneck dept.

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister catalogs 12 sure-fire ways to get your app rejected from Apple's notoriously fickle App Store. From executing interpreted code, to using Apple's APIs without permission, to designing your UI, each transgression has been abstracted from real-life rejections — for the most part because Apple seems to be making up the rules as it goes along. 'It'd be nice for Apple to make conditions for rejection clear,' McAllister writes. 'Apple has been tinkering with the language of its iPhone SDK license agreement lately, but that hasn't done much to clarify the rules — unless you're Adobe. For everyone else, the App Store's requirements seem as vague and capricious as ever.'"

8 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. this book can't be a complete set by Michael+Kristopeit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    with the current open ended terms, there is no way this book could be a complete set... "just 'cause" will always still be an option for apple.

    1. Re:this book can't be a complete set by The+Qube · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have no problem with "just cause" if there are avenues for communication and appeal. However...

      My app was kicked out of the App Store after 12 months. It was the best app for cricket scores out there - #1 app in almost all cricket-playing countries, great online and offline reviews, featured by Apple several times etc. All of the scores etc for it were obtained from legal sources. However, the developers for the official app of the Indian Premier League (sort-of international cricket competition in March/April every year) complained to Apple that my app infringed on their exclusive rights to provide information on IPL matches and, after a bit of back-and-forth arguments between myself and them, Apple pulled the app.

      Now, it's not the fact that they pulled it without "just cause" that upset me, but that they refused to comment and communicate about it in any way. I repeatedly sent emails to various official (and unofficial) contacts at Apple to seek clarification, complain and get the app re-instated, but not a peep from anyone. I even sent an official DMCA Counter Notification and not a single response on that either.

      After no word from anyone for a long while, I had to close the service even for existing users who already had the app on their iPhones 'cos I couldn't afford to keep paying for the match data feeds with no revenues. Apple's decision has cost me thousands of dollars, but again, what really upsets me is the total lack of professionalism and common courtesy that they have displayed in this.

      --

      "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

  2. Innovate too well, Apple kills it. by sethstorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Make something innovative enough, Apple will co-opt it (cut-paste, tethering) and forget what they said previously about it and then delete your app from the store.

    It probably would be better to have a plan to offer it to jailbroken iPhones to at least reduce losses.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  3. Re:using vendor API's !welcome? by TheoCryst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem with using Apple's private APIs is that they tend to be unstable, and there are no guarantees that they won't change. Apple would very much rather that half the apps in their store didn't break because of an OS update that changes an undocumented API. And they've always been good about making private APIs public once they stabilize, so it's not as big a deal as this guy makes it sound.

    --
    Warning: Contents May Be Flammable. Keep Out Of Reach Of Children.
  4. Re:Go buy an Android if you want freedom by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, the fact that there are other options is not a valid reason to simply shut up and accept Apple's capriciousness. Merely taking other options is worthless as a force for change unless you also make it known why you took the alternative.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  5. Re:Go buy an Android if you want freedom by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >This isn't the 90's and Apple isn't MS

    No, its the 2000s and one of the largest smartphone OSs is iPhone (50 million units sold). Lets not forget their near perfect monopoly on music players, which are little more than smartphones sans phone and are binary compatible with ipod/ipad.

    Also, in the 1990s no one made you buy Microsoft. You could always have bought a Mac or run a maturing Linux, like today. Harmful monopolies are funny things. In retrospect they are easy to spot, but when you in the midst of one its easy to justify them.

    >They don't have to open up their hardware or software to anyone else, and no court is going to make them.

    I dont think anyone is suggesting that, but pointing out Apple's rotten policies is a social good, at least in my book. It keeps the consumers informed and the bad publicity will hurt them enough in the long run. We're pretty much witnessing Steve Jobs circa 1980s all over again. He's going to fight for closed and expensive while his competitors will fight for open and cheap(er). Closed and expensive has early advantages but not much staying power.

  6. Re:Does anyone else remember Calvin and Hobbes by schon · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, it's nothing like Calvinball.

    In Calvinball, both players got to change the rules. With the iphone, only Apple gets to.

  7. Re:Go buy an Android if you want freedom by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And by that logic movie critics should never write bad reviews, because nobody's forcing them to watch those movies. If Apple is acting immorally, what is wrong with calling them out on it?