Why Apple does or does not approved certain iPhone apps has been a source of contention for quite some time. Now another debate is brewing, this time around apps that were initially approved, but then “disapproved” by Apple.
On the one side is the infamous Hottest Girls app. Initially approved by Apple, the developer, according to a TechCrunch article, claims to have taken it down due to server overload, only for Apple to come out and claim it took it down due to “inappropriate content”. It is not up to me to decide what is inappropriate, but it is worth noting that Apple took action after it had approved the app.
Apple seems to have taken a different approach with photography apps. There are many camera apps that Apple approved initially. However, with some of them, Apple has not approved their iPhone 3.0 updates due to the use of “custom camera view” (an undocumented interface) in the app, a practice that Apple approved initially, but is now cracking down on (see the blog entry by Stepcase, the maker of Darkroom, whose iPhone 3.0 updates has not been approved. A list of photo apps with pending approvals can be found on iPhoneography.)
The big question is: Why does Apple not take these apps down, as they did with Hottest Girls? Even worse, Apple does not mark these apps in their AppStore as ‘iPhone 2.0 only’ – they leave it up to the developers to inform customers and prospective buyers. Some do so prominently, others in a less noticeable fashion. Most claim that they are still waiting for Apple’s approval, which leads a prospective buyer to believe that the approval will be granted, which might not be true. Shouldn’t Apple be obligated to set expectations clearly, so that every AppStore customers knows where to look? Why does Apple leave the developers holding the bag, since they also have to deal with the returns of these apps, if updates are not approved?
This problem will only be exacerbated by new iPhone 3GS only apps. Just one example: There is no light meter app today, since you could not measure exposure of a certain part of the image on the older versions of the iPhone. This will be remedied in iPhone 3GS due to the touch-to-meter functionality built into the camera app, so I expect light meter apps to show up in the AppStore soon. How will these be labeled? Shouldn’t Apple provide a mechanism for a developer to tell all customers what iPhone HW and SW an app runs on rather than the developer having to put that information into its app’s notes?
What do you think?
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