Oh boy. We’ve known for quite a while that Apple has been making some inconsistent (and often absurd) decisions within their approvals / rejections process for App Store apps. We’ve even seen recent anecdotal evidence that the approvals process in fact has no system at all, and decisions are subject to the whims of each individual reviewer. Today we have news of probably the worst example yet of dumb decisions in this area.
The latest update to Tweetie – a hugely popular Twitter client for the iPhone – has been rejected on the grounds that it displays offensive language. But … the language in question is found in Twitter trends search results displayed in the app. In other words, it is found in a web search of a popular social network. It is not language that is integral to the app itself. As many others have pointed out, you could easily find more offensive words (and more) via searches in Apple’s own Safari app on the iPhone, or the much-loved Google Mobile app, and plenty of others.
Just a ridiculous decision. An indefensible one I would think, if even a small amount of logic and knowledge of how the web works is applied.
I think Nilay Patel at Engdagdet has summed it up perfectly …
Look, Apple — this is a nadir. Rejecting a Twitter client for Twitter’s content is simply indefensible, and it’s a sign that the App Store approval "process" is broken beyond repair. It’s time to drop the seemingly-random black-box approach — which has earned nothing but well-deserved scorn — open up, establish consistent, easy-to-understand rules with a well-defined appeals process, and actually work with innovative developers like Tweetie’s Loren Brichter to push your platform forward in the face of newly-stiff competition. The massive popularity of the iPhone and the App Store may prevent a mass exodus, but the best devs are going to leave if they feel jerked around, and we doubt a store full of fart apps and misogynistic jiggle apps is really the vision you had for your platform. Think about it.
One of the reasons that the iPhone was able to have such an immediate and huge impact in the smartphone arena is that for years and years Palm and Windows Mobile have been plagued by a severe lack of vision and by many stupid decisions. I’m sure there are far nicer, and probably more effective, ways to say that – but I feel convinced that is true.
The App Store – and the huge range of apps available in it – is one of the biggest factors driving iPhone’s success. Maybe the biggest factor in its success or failure going forward.
If Apple is dumb enough to find ways to ruin the App Store experience for users, or to poison it for developers, they could well lose all the ground they’ve gained in the marketplace. If developers become fed up with stupid, unexplainable decisions on how the store is run, they’re far more likely to take their apps to the Android platform, or over to the upcoming webOS platform, or to any of the other mobile platforms that make more sense to them.
I agree with all of Nilay’s main points on this subject. The rules of acceptance and rejection should be set out clearly somewhere. We should not still constantly be seeing grey areas. There definitely needs to be a simple appeals process, so that idiotic decisions like today’s can be argued against more quickly. Most of all, Apple should work with developers and communicate with developers much more on subjects like this one. Their arrogant, tight-lipped approach to this and other subjects has got to be an incentive to developers to look elsewhere.
Apple and the App Store have a big head start over rivals’ efforts in this area – but Palm and Windows Mobile and all the others had a huge head start on Apple in the smartphone space, and it didn’t make up for dumb decisions and lack of vision. The biggest element in Apple’s head start is the apps themselves. The sheer number of apps available, the quality and ‘wow factor’ of many of them, the huge level of enthusiasm for the platform from developers.
But … if Apple keeps making dumb decisions like today’s, keeps making their approvals process inscrutable and senseless, keeps failing to provide a search mechanism that works in the App Store, keeps on refusing to be even remotely approachable on these subjects, and continues to offer nothing (and allow nothing from 3rd parties) that lets us arrange and manage our apps effectively as users, then their big head start in the App Store arena will be wasted – and developers and users alike will find the platform less and less appealing.
Apple should listen to Engadget’s advice. And act on it. Very soon.
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Hi Patrick,
>”Just a ridiculous decision. An indefensible one I would think, if even a small amount of logic and knowledge of how the web works is applied.”
Agreed!
I’m starting to think they do have a process. A very basic process followed so strictly that leads to ridiculous decisions. One of the statements of that process might be “Reject Apps that use foul language.”. But the reviewer probably doesn’t know what Tweeter is and doesn’t know how to distinguish between an App info and what comes from the internet as a search result.
Apple is playing really defensively here, probably avoiding to be sued by some crazy parents that saw those foul words on his son’s iPod/iPhone.
>”… then their big head start in the App Store arena will be wasted.”
I’m not quite sure about that. How often good Apps get rejected? 5% of the time? 1%? It’s not enough to doom such an advanced technology and huge community. Microsoft probably has a list 100x larger with complaints about stupid stuff made by Windows, and people still uses it a lot.
Agree with you on this: Apple should stop being arrogant, talk to the developers and clean the gray areas!
So glad to see Apple reversed this one, and approved the Tweetie update. They still have a lot to do in this area though …
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