For most iPhone developers, an App Store rejection is an extremely remote prospect. By and large, Apple’s guidelines on this issue are consistent, and far from confusing. Here are some reasons an app might be rejected:
Duplicating an iPhone function:
One iPhone developer who created an app called ‘Podcaster’ found that Apple would not allow this app into the App Store since it replicated a function already implemented on the iPhone, through the iPod app. Of course, when Apple rejected the podcaster app, it was still months away from adding crucial functions to the iPod app that would allow users to download podcasts directly to the iPhones.
Pornographic content:
Well, we know how this works–there are gray areas, there’s artistic freedom, there’s always some debate about interpretation and yet when something is intended to be pornographic, we just know it. Apple has been reasonably consistent with this policy, especially with picture content.
Copyright issues:
Apple is sure to reject any app capable of copyright infringement, or likely to encourage it. Respecting coyright and intellectual property rights is somethign Apple takes very seriously, and always has. Which is why on the good old iPod, you can sync music from the computer to the device, but not the other way round. Apple did not want its iPods to function as cool looking pen drives that would allow people to carry around and exchange music.
For the same reason, Apple has also rejected a UTorrent client for iPhone. This is still fresh news–the rejection was only announced yesterday.
Apps with unacceptable violence:
Similar to the obscenity issue, this one also has a lot of room for interpretation. There are plenty of games in the App Store that feature quite graphic violence, so Apple does seem a little more tolerant towards violence than some of these other factors listed here.
Apps with real people and well-known figures:
A developer I know created an addictive boxing game. This was some time ago, actually–just about three months after the release of the App Store. This was the first boxing game on iPhone and probably still the best one out there. But the game wasn’t accepted right away. The original version allowed you you knock out opponents such as Osama bin Laden, as well as some politicans that were perhaps not very popular at the time. Apple rejected this version, and advised the developers to create a version where there were no references to any public figures or any real people. Curiously enough, Apple later on allowed an upgrade to the game where you could box against Santa who was all clad in red and white. You’d almost think that at Apple they think Santa isn’t real, but that can’t be right!
Apple does often come across some gray areas so far as app rejection is concerned. For the most part the policy is consistent, but there is always some app that makes Apple think hard, and clarify it’s App Store policy in even more detail. Visiting the App Store graveyard, and reading the obits on the tombs of all these dead apps one by one would help us understand this process better.
