Apple Extends Non-Disclosure to App Store Rejection Letters

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Totally agree. Now Apple doesn't even want you talking about the fact you've been rejected from their store? That's pretty damn weak.

And if you do talk about it, you'll be sued by Apple and all the fan boys will tell you how that's Apple's right to do so since you violated their NDA and you deserve what you get.

iDictatorship

Apple appears to have gone power mad. I certainly won't be developing any iPhone apps.

But dude, it's like an iPhone and so it still rocks!

Seriously, I've been appalled ever since they decided to sue a certain two bit clone maker just because they can and because they are control freaks. I like OS X, but I don't like a company telling me what I can buy, what I can use on my computer or phone and whom I can buy it from. Their attitude seems to be that you will buy it from us, you will do as we say and thirdly you will not talk about fight club (or you will be sued).

They are not silencing anyone, the developer signed a contract with Apple, which is confidential between the two parties, why should they go outside of that agreement and blab to the whole word because they didn't what they want. When the App store was formed, I knew this would happen, a developer gets rejected, they go and cry to the media and everyone says Apple are the bad guys and feels sorry for the small developer. Yes I would like to see this court, I'm sure Apple would win. Like I said the world is not fair, why can't I go and sell the bread that I made in my house at the local grocery store, if they don't let me sell it there, they are being anticompetitive, what a joke.

Yup, I knew they would come out of the woodwork. Too bad! You broke the law! You deserve to be sued! We don't have to compete with anyone! Apple is not and CAN NOT be a monopoly and so they deserve to be sued. Apple rulez and everyone knows it. Steve Jobs rocks! You're all a bunch of crybabies! You don't know anything about the law. Psystar doesn't have a case! Those iPhone developers KNEW what they were getting into when they spent months and months developing an app. They knew they could be rejected for no reason. It's the chance they took! All jailbreakers should be sued by Apple! The iPhone is Apple's property and they have every RIGHT to due whatever they want with it. They own the software and you only 'licensed' it so they maintain the right to tell you what you can do and what you cannot do with that word processor! All profits made with Apple products are subject to a 30% off the top 'protection' fee which you must submit to Apple or be sued. We are Apple. You will be assimilated.

 

[Slim02]

Some people here are so lame.. You people care about a damn app.. I did not buy a cell phone for app but for its hardware and software.. I will get a iPhone because it can do things better then my cellar phone now.. But come on your going to sell your iPhone over stupid deals with app.. Does the iPhone play music? Yes!. Does the iPhone play videos? Yes!. Does the iPhone surf the internet? Yes!. Does the iPhone have WiFi, bluetooth and GPS? Yes!. Does the iPhone have email right on the phone without opening a program like most cellar phones? Yes!.. Are we starting to get the point now?.. The iPhone hardware and Software is what we should care about.. The apps is a bonus or a plus but not a reason to own a iPhone.. The Software and the hardware is the reason to own a iPhone.. So go sell your iPhone because your not getting the stupid apps you want. We do not need whiners like you on the iPhone but do not come crying back when the other wannabe iPhone does not live up to the hype and crashes...

 

[firewood]

If Walmart turns down your product you can always go somewhere else or even sell the product yourself. If Apple turns down your iPhone software you are out of luck.

Not quite. I'm already selling other (non-iPhone) versions of my software on other phone platforms.

But just like Walmart, it's usually better to be in the biggest store even if their purchasing department is a major hassle to get through.

 

[olternaut]

Adroid is open source it can run on any hardware. How long until someone get Adroid to run on an unlocked iPhone? Not as an application but as a total replacement for Apple's firmware?

I write software, full time (plus) I've been at it for about 30 years now. The very LAST thing I'd want to do is spend time writing something only to have Apple reject it. Well it would not be so bad if you knew up front what the rules were but Apple won't tell you that. Now they won't even let others tell you that their app was rejected so we might be able to deduce the rules. Who in the world would risk months of their time working on something when they can't predict if it will be allowed in the store? The level of risk is to high.

Apple needs to publish the rules and stick to them. If they continue like this no one will risk any serious development time on the iPhone so we will only have a parade of little toy apps like flash light and simple games.

Adroid on the other hand looks like a much better platform. They argue that it will be a "big mess" if anyone can sell any application. But can't anyone sell any application on the Mac OS X platform. Macs aren't "a big mess" why should Adroid be different?

Yup. A parade of little toy apps indeed! You've also opened up a can of worms there with the Mac OSX platform.....I mean I'm assuming your referring to their desktop version.
What do I mean about a can of worms? Well, Apple is treating their "phone" product as a closed and I mean CLOSED system. I guess for now its being overlooked because its a phone.........right?
And the desktop is well.....a desktop. Anyone can write an app for it cause its opened up.
But what if the iphone morphs over time into a truly mobile super computer and it outright replaces the desktop and even the laptop altogether? Would Apple still treat the iphone (if at that time it will even be still called an iphone) as a closed device?
Or will they at that time in the future allow the device to be open just like any other desktop system?
If mobiles become THE way to compute in the future.....the ONLY way to compute in the future and its a closed down environment......
Will that be the end of the freedom and power computers can provide us?

Imagine if all apps today had to be approved first before being allowed to run on any desktop? What if you had to "jailbreak" your desktop to get any "real" apps to run on it.
That would be horrifying wouldn't it?

 

[dmelgar]

Some people here are so lame.. You people care about a damn app.. I did not buy a cell phone for app but for its hardware and software.. I will get a iPhone because it can do things better then my cellar phone now.. But come on your going to sell your iPhone over stupid deals with app.. Does the iPhone play music? Yes!. Does the iPhone play videos? Yes!. Does the iPhone surf the internet? Yes!. Does the iPhone have WiFi, bluetooth and GPS? Yes!. Does the iPhone have email right on the phone without opening a program like most cellar phones? Yes!.. Are we starting to get the point now?.. The iPhone hardware and Software is what we should care about.. The apps is a bonus or a plus but not a reason to own a iPhone.. The Software and the hardware is the reason to own a iPhone.. So go sell your iPhone because your not getting the stupid apps you want. We do not need whiners like you on the iPhone but do not come crying back when the other wannabe iPhone does not live up to the hype and crashes...

Wow. Very confused post. Software = Applications.

Thats what we're complaining about. Supposedly you can buy additional software for your iPhone. But Apple won't allow applications that may improve their own not so good software or that they deem to be competitive. Not good.

 

[nickXedge]

I predict the #1 app in the Android Market store will be porn. Not that there's anything wrong with that I guess.

(and #2 will be Koi Pond)

arn

This is why you're my hero, Arn.

On a side note, where can I buy one of these G1s?

 

[exigentsky]

This reminds me of China's evaluation that the problem is journalists, not human rights abuses. Concealment is not the answer. While I don't care about any particular app, the idea that Apple is using its power in this way is deeply disappointing. Apple should stop being so closed and controlling. Let people live free and be creative.

 

[Slim02]

Wow. Very confused post. Software = Applications.

Thats what we're complaining about. Supposedly you can buy additional software for your iPhone. But Apple won't allow applications that may improve their own not so good software or that they deem to be competitive. Not good.

It is not confusing what I said.. Before the iPhone you could not do a lot of the things the iPhone can do or could not do really good.. Again 3rd party applications should be look at as a bonus not a must. I am not buying a iPhone because of the app from 3rd parties but what the Software and Hardware that is built into the iPhone..

If I going to buy a iPhone, I going to get a iPhone not a wannabe iPhone... If it was not for the iPhone no one would be trying to copy it.. So the iPhone most be doing some thing right lol...

 

[hiimamac]

This reminds me of China's evaluation that the problem is journalists, not human rights abuses. Concealment is not the answer. Apple should stop being so closed and controlling. Let people live free and be creative.

I look at it like this, google isn't it? OS operating system right? So that means more phones, not just one provider and many Operating (Android) on other phones that will be sexy. If they can get the battery life UP and SPEEDS and not all the SLOW 3G problems that the iPhone has (which doesn't matter to much to me as I am always near WI FI), still, no turn by turn for iPhone, TETHER, (extra charge in future), SLOW 3G phones (iPhone), either a fix, or RECALL, plus just the way Apple operates. I say this is good.

Operates?

True or False? You could never play a OPEN GL video game on a mac book?
Answer? True

True or False: Apple and the PRO MARKET (Mac Pro, MACBOOK Pro) makes up less than 1% of the market?
Anwser:True. It's made up of iPhone, iPod and iMac users.
However, at one time, the macbook, pre X300 GPU graphic chip, the open GP went from 71% all the way up to 171% with Leopard and you could RUN MOTION on the Macbook, so, apple crippled it!
Why? They didn't want the less than, as in < less than 1% of the pro use base, you know, the creatives when CREATIVE ONE TO ONE MEANT FCP, MOTION, SHAKE, LOGIC, not iLife with iPhoto, buying a cheap macbook.

Then look at the iMac. Pretty powerful, especially for price to performance, yet, GLOSSY, meaning no graphic work (VIDEO, COLOR CORRECTION) and the reduction of their LOGIC/SHAKE= they don't really care, its not about, okay, people will buy a mac, they haven't. Although FCP is pretty good.

Of course, there are some other issues with the firewire and MACBOOKS and iMACS, but that's for another day.

Moral? Competition is good and things like EFIx don't break any rules, so I think Apple is going to have a hard time with this and this could mean vanilla MACS all over the place, plus jailbroken phones = video, tethering, more apps. Shoot, some speculate that jail broken resulted in the birth of the App store - so don't give the those that helped us a hard time, i.e. EFIx could have the same affect someday.

Wake up Apple, give us the MIDRANGE, fix the phone or recall it, or give it to all the carriers and get AT&T to drop the price! $30 for a service a lot of people cannot use to date inside their homes.

 

[Phormic]

Good Lord. All this hysteria, teeth gnashing and comparisons of Apple to the Chinese totalitarian Government, haven't been seen on this forum since the revelation a year or so back, that Apple wouldn't allow third parties to install native apps on their phone.

Seems like only yesterday don't it kids? Things sure change quickly...

 

[DaveTheGrey]

and you'll see why 2008 will be like 1984....

 

[OS X Dude]

wtf
Apple has been on a slipery slide down hill for a while here, Arrogant, power hungry, iWay or the high way.
Good buy think different, hello think like we tell you.

I'd find it wonderfully ironic that the Mac "cultists" who were so for Apple before now and were it's loyal fanbase, suddenly became the people who bought PCs and WinMo/Android phones in rebellion against Apple

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

lame.

Agreed, completely and utterly lame.

Yup. Nothing but winners over there at Apple. Really instills confidence.

 

[daneoni]

Baaad move. I mean seriously how can draconian can you get!

 

[brockm]

Apple is just becoming stupid. I really don't understand the fanbois sticking up for this. What is it about human beings that make so many of us so inherently theistic? If we're not worshipping a God, we're worshipping a corporate brand, a product, Star Trek or Star Wars, etc.

I am one of the few who got access to this application and paid for it. How Apple thinks it creates "confusion" in the marketplace is beyond me. Does the firmware already contain support for podcasts? Yes. Does the firmware contain support to download podcasts over the air? No.

Even if Apple *was* planning on adding support for this in future firmware releases, why would the presence of an alternative podcast application offend them? If Apple's solution was better, I suspect people would stop paying $9.99 for a vestigial alternative.

I rather suspect this has a lot more to do with Apple's secretive agreements with the carriers, actually. Given than many podcasts are MP3 files that are well within the >20MB range, this application could well result in significantly increased data usage for some users. Ask yourself why the iTunes Store on the iPhone only works with Wi-Fi.

That being said, it's clear that Apple's explanation for the rejection is inconsistent with the approval of other applications which overlap with existing functionality.

Right now, Apple is at a precipice. Make no mistake, Steve Jobs has always been this way. He seems like a cool guy, he's helped shape brilliant products, but at the end of the day he's a control freak. That's worked up until now, because Apple has existed as a clique market.

The ecosystem that now surrounds Apple is significantly more than just a clique, and as such, the business model needs to adjust with the growth.

The problem is not limited to this. We see it in how Apple's product strategy, while expanding, also seems to be stretched thin.

It's hard to believe that a company of Apple's size and profitability has problems finding good people to do the work. I would imagine that heavily centralized management, given Jobs management style, has a lot more to do with the increasing pressure on the companies ability to manage multiple market strategies simultaneously.

As in large, diverse markets, centralized management starts to show signs of weakness, and inability to manage efficiently as you start to face the physical limitations of how much you can know, and how fast you can know it. You start to become more of a bottleneck than an enabler. Efficiency breaks down, quality deteriorates, ability to execute quickly deteriorates.

Apple is a company that wants to be small while being big. Something has to give. Stuff like this is just a symptom of this broader problem with Apple.

 

[Phil A.]

IMO, the real irony with this move by Apple is the fact that OS X on the iPhone (and the Macs, AppleTV, etc) is built on an open source foundation and they've turned it into the most closed system of any phone platform...

 

[kironin]

very lame Apple.

between this rampant secretiveness control freak-out by Apple and Google's anything goes where is the sanity ?

 

[neilford]

Remember, Apple never planned to have anyone but Apple write native apps. Everyone was supposed to write web apps. This is the direction they want software to go, as well as pay per use. Isn't Adobe experimenting with this with web based Photoshop?

 

[DHUK]

Closed Box

As a consumer, I'd still buy the iPod Touch/iPhone and purchase a bunch of applications to run on it. But as a one person developer shop, I don't think I'd want to develop an application on a platform where a company across the pond would tell me whether I can run it on their device or not. Will people stop developing for the iPhone? I don't think so - but I think people will think twice before they embark on any development without combing through the NDA.

Apple has raised the bar in recent years but they need to react. People will start going elsewhere. I no longer use iTunes to buy my MP3s. 7Digital in the UK give a better quality product and in some cases are a lot cheaper (latest KoL album for £5 at 320k MP3 for instance). People may start Jailbreaking their products to get the applications they want to run on their devices. Rather than refusing applications, let the consumer vote - even charge for them if it's just duplicating functionality to made the consumer think again for purchasing it.

 

[Analog Kid]

I wonder what purpose it serves Apple to put the letters under the NDA as well, other than to shield them from the press.

Shielding from the press is not the purpose from an NDA... the purpose of an NDA is to protect sensitive information from competitors.

What we have here are two extremes: Apple going off the deep end on secrecy and Google being perhaps a bit too open and opening themselves up for malware. Why can't we have a cool, moderate head in this ballgame?

Absolutely agree. That's not an NDA, it's a gag order.

I was tolerant of Apple's approach to this whole thing until now. I was willing to wait and see where the balance would be struck. This is just downright authoritarian, and I can't figure out how to spin it any other way.

I'd love to see Apple try to prosecute a breach of the NDA for this reason.

The free for all is a nightmare too-- we'll see how long that lasts.

 

[Darkroom]

yeah, apple has been sucking fat ones for a while now... man, i hope apple falls hard for this BS...

 

[Lictor]

If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less.

This is not specific to Android phones... For instance, Orange France currently applies the same policy to iPhones, except with different thresholds and bandwidth limitations. At least in theory, it's written in the contracts, but I don't think anyone actually got hit by this policy...

 

[aleksander]

L.A.M.E.

Hopefully a cold breath of competition will change that. But then, still lame.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I am curious what are the rules that gets a developer rejected.

I think apple needs guidelines. Atleast, then it won't look too much like taking the world.

With guidelines, Even apple would have to play by them.

THis is why Google is doing open source.....to take over the world.

 

[bolibic]

While I don't appreciate how much Apple is trying to close off the system and make it a black box, I don't think a free-for-all approach will be any better. There will be so much junk to sift through to find something good. Not to mention malicious app possibilities.

1. Nobody talked about "free for all" approach. Here is about free speech.
2. By the way, on your beautiful mac you can install whatever you want.