It has been a couple of years since the Apple App Store was inaugurated. There is supposedly a lot of prestige involved in developing for the Apple iOS. But it is only now that the company has come out with actual physical rules for its troop of third-party iOS developers.
Apple surprised one and all by publishing their revised Developer License Agreement, giving detailed rules for developers desirous of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. More importantly, Apple also went liberal with the kinds of tools developers could use to create these apps, as also revised their rules on how ad networks could be integrated into these apps.
While a lot of developers welcomed Apple's new developer guidelines, there were many among us who were left wondering what the catch here was and whether Apple had ever genuinely wanted to publish this new set of rules at all.
It is well known to all of us that Apple is never really willing to give out information about how they function and what goes on behind the scenes. So it is possible that the regulatory boards put some kind of pressure on the company to come out into the open. Sometime in mid 2010, the FTC had been sniffing around, quizzing Apple about why they were banning certain dev tools and ad networks in their apps.
Apple's ousting of the Google Voice app
Rejecting the Google Voice app brought the company under the scanner. Apple had then justified its stand, citing multiple issues like bugs, crashes, violation of privacy, content inappropriate for children, unauthorized APIs and the like.
That was the turning point. Though devs got some idea about Apple's grounds of app approval, they still did not have exact specifications and stipulations. Hence, they started voicing their opinion whenever they felt the company was being unfair in rejecting a particular app. This is when the mobile device giant decided to come out with clear guidelines, stating what was or was not acceptable.
Ethical issues
Apple is also trying to address ethical issues in its revised guidelines policy and states that the following types of apps would be rejected:- Apps that contain marketing or advertising material
- Those which are neither entertaining nor useful in some way
- Apps that are erotic in nature and contain sexually explicit material
- Ones that make false claims of functionality
- Those that encourage consumption of liquor or tobacco
- Apps which are too similar to one that already exists in the App Store
- Apps encouraging violence, bloodshed, racism or communalism
- The more expensive apps will be reviewed to the maximum extent
Some gray areas yet
Apple have admitted to some gray areas in their guidelines, though. The rules, they say, are not final and binding all the time and may be subject to change.
So how are controversial apps dealt with and who is to have the final say in the matter? That power, the mobile Mogul states, will rest exclusively with them.
The Apple-Google tug-of-war
Apple is also probably feeling a little threatened by Google's Android Market, which now features 100,000 apps. Google has a different take on their apps marketplace. They are of the view that if users do not like a developer's app, they simply will not purchase them. Google, therefore, does not see any reason to reject apps on the basis of utility or value. Apple, on the other hand, do not want consumers to ever have a negative experience on their App Store.
Publishing new guidelines is also probably Apple's way of preventing being "trashed in the press" by developers who have time and again approached the media to publicly vent their frustration at being rejection by the App Store.
Considering all the above points, one definitely gets the feeling that Apple is desperately trying to patch up with iOS developers and maintain the goodwill it has gathered over the last couple of years.
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