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Why AppGratis Was Pulled From the App Store
RougeFemme writes "By now, you may know that AppGratis, a popular app discovery app, was recently pulled from the App store. Apple listed violations of the following guidelines: '2.25 Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected. ... 5.6 Apps cannot use Push Notifications to send advertising, promotions, or direct marketing of any kind.' Now, the company's CEO, Simon Dawlat, has made a blog post with 'the rest of the story.'"
As it turns out, AppGratis had been cleared by Apple for guideline 2.25 as recently as October, and its iPad version was approved less than a week ago. The brand new Apple review team member who contacted the company isn't able to explain what went into the decision to ban it now. Dalwat says the complaint about guideline 5.6 was 'another surprise for us since we only send one "system notification" a day to our users, coming in the form of a generic, opt-in only "Today’s deal is here!" message, which is precisely how Apple recommends developers to use its push notification service.'" However, the AllThingsD article cites sources claiming Apple was "more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure." Dalwat does not address this in his post.
Die by the walled garden.
Develop open source if you don't want your hard work to live entirely at the whims of someone else, whose interests probably don't align with yours. All the worse if you put all your proverbial eggs in this basket, grew a bit, and had the carpet pulled out from under you (a 45-person company in this case).
I feel sorry for these guys, but the problem is the walled-garden ecosystems which are - unfortunately - proliferating instead of dying out.
They'll all die out eventually.
Oh well...
I did not know the app was removed from the app store, and since I am jailbroken and have the "apple killswitch" disabled, I do not know if they pulled it from the phones as well.
Problem solved!
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
As opposed to their somehow having managed to con local news into covering every stinking Apple Store opening even though retailers and service centers throughout Apple's history have provided the exact same services that the Apple Store provides, for the same price?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I would probably find this app annoying, but so is Apple's schizo application vetting & approval policy.
Animal entrails can be read more reliably.
It is really simple to see what the problem was, if developers had money to pay to AppGratis to promote their app, they should instead be giving that money to Apple.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I've decrypted the Apple EULA. It says this:
"Apple must make the majority of any profit to be had. Developers will be paid only a fraction of what their efforts are worth. Loyalty to the Furo--er, Brand is absolute. Apps which go against our brandalist(tm) propaganda are to be banned with immediate effect using one of the dozen or so vaguely-defined rules outlined below. Ka-Pla!"
But more seriously guys... if you're developing for Apple, prepare to be raped. They don't give a flying fuck through a rolling doughnut about you, the developer. You should feel privileged to develop for the legacy of the Great Man Jobs. How dare you ask for a fair share of the profit! If you want that, go slink off and develop for (spits) that Anderzoid platform or whatever it's called. Apple is the future. Suck it up, cupcake.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Seriously... you know what you're getting into when you develop for Apple's locked down ecosystem, and if you did not realize your survival there will forever be at the mercy of your corporate overlord's whims, you are to oblivious to succeed anyway.
-Lod
Yo dawg!
I heard you like apps, so I put app discovery in your app so you can discover apps while using your app!
Apple was "more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure."
In other words they are disturbed by an advertising App whose business model is based on that of every other advertising firm on the planet?
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, writing an angry notice when his app was rejected by Apple.
.. but though luck! That's what you get for working with secretive company that retains absolute power over the device and your users. They should have not chosen Apple in the first place if they wanted a secure, business-friendly computing platform.
The removal is simply impossible to justify, making it clear that Apple is just being its usual control freak self, not letting ethics and the fate of a small company get in the way of exercising total control over their ecosystem. There are dozens of other Apps (FreeAppADay.com - FAAD, Monster Apps, the list runs into the 100s) that have the exact same functionality as AppGratis. That these apps are still in but AppGratis is out means it's not about the rules. The part about developers with means paying for exposure is BS, Apple has an advertising program for developers called iAd for developers for which the cutoff is $10k/ad campaign. It used to be $100k at one point. That's not paying for exposure?
for marketing, fuck that.
I realize that consistency is highly overrated... but is the CEO's last name Dalwat or Dawlat?
I! Tego Arcana Dei.
then why are iOS developers making 75% of the revenues from mobile app downloads?
The article you linked states that though Apple had the lion's share of revenue from priced applications, Google Play Store had more total downloads, paid and free, than downloads from Apple, Microsoft, and RIM stores combined. (Conspicuous by its absence from the article is Amazon, but that's beside my point.)
Let me take a guess as to why Google wins downloads while Apple wins revenue. Apple never launched the iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad in a given country without support for iTunes payment. Google, on the other hand, chose to allow sales of devices with Android Market (now Play) in some countries to which it hadn't yet launched Checkout (now Wallet). To reach customers in those countries, developers had to make their applications available without charge and recoup their expenses through advertising. This set up an expectation among Android users that applications would have an ad-supported version. Didn't Rovio claim to earn more from advertisements in ad-supported versions of Angry Birds than from sale of priced versions?
Apple was "more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure."
for a moment there i got confused into thinking apple was troubled by it's own app store
Why would anybody spend time making an app knowing it could be pulled at any time for any reason? That's just stupid.
And not a pretty HTML5 Web App?
If all they are doing is presenting products to users, I am baffled why they need a native experience?
[gigaom.com]
Another article from the same site in September of last year states that iOS used to produce five times the revenue of Android, but the gap is shrinking. Even if iOS still draws 40 to 50 percent more revenue per user, acquisition costs per user tend to run lower on Android.
how do you make an add supported app? Or do you?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Did anyone else wince when they read 'app discovery app' ? I remember a time long ago when applications were called 'computer programs.'
The Blade Itself
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Because of all the Apple hatred going on here, people fail to realize that banning applications that will use any means available to plaster you with ads it's a really good thing. You can argue about the technical details of how it was done, but in general I consider this to be a very good thing. And it is one of the reasons I miss my old iPhone after trying out Android.
After reading about stuff like this, it makes me realize that even if Apple hardware is way overpriced, they are like an antivirus software. You don't really need it if you know what you are doing but it makes it very easy for you not to get infected.
I noticed once my screen shots got approved even though they had the placeholder Ad graphics in them. I think it was a couple of updates later I was told to change them.
Stitcher takes people's free podcasts, cuts ads into them and then doesn't give one cent of ad money back to the podcast creators.
I still don't see how this is even freaking legal.
I think you mean 'the Apple App Store'.
Was this article submitted just to surreptitiously slip the phrase into current use to bolster Apple's bogus trademark application?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
www-dot-change-dot-org/petitions/apple-end-your-app-store-monopoly