Follow up on my app store rejection
First, I want to say that I’m sorry if you’ve been following this. My little clock doesn’t really deserve the attention that it got in the press. The opaque and seemingly robotic rejections from the App store can be frustrating, and this blog is my outlet. If you’re reading it, you’ve been warned.
The full story is that after the second rejection, I wrote an email back to the app store reviewers. They were nice enough to telephone me back, which was pretty amazing considering the volume of apps that must be passing through their system.
But, the call was actually not much better than the email. The front-line call folks seem to have a short list of what is and is not allowed to be discussed. Again, I understand, but I’ll admit that I was fuming when the conversation ended. It’s amazingly frustrating to be talking to someone who probably has the info you want, but isn’t allowed to share it. The conclusion was positive though as she agreed to have someone more senior get in touch that could discuss things more openly.
But this morning I got a call from a really nice guy who seemed to be more in charge of things and didn’t seem to have any restrictions to what he was allowed to talk about. Moreover, he gave me the one reason that I didn’t know until now: iPad specific apps are being held to a higher standard than iPhone apps.
It’s as simple as that. If you’re iPad only, you’ve got to do a bit more to get in the club.
He said that there’s a good chance that my app would be accepted as an iPhone app but as an iPad app it needs to offer the user more. I’ll admit that in retrospect it seems obvious. I feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t come to that conclusion myself. Yes, it would have been nice for them to let me know in their first rejection letter, but I can’t expect the world to hand me everything on a silver platter. I should have done a bit more thinking on my own.
So, where does it leave me? I’d still kind of like a simple clock on the App Store. I would have paid a couple bucks for it, if it had existed. I don’t think I’m alone. But everything in life is a tradeoff and in this case my desire for simplicity is being traded for a higher standard on all iPad apps. If I were in charge, I think I would make the same tradeoff. I think if Apple can continue in this vein it will be a net win for everyone: developers, Apple, and of course users.
One last thing. They guy who called went really above and beyond. Not only did he take the time to explain things, but he also wanted me to understand that equity was a core principle and that if, even a while from now, I found that I wasn’t being reviewed fairly that I could call him directly.
Stop for a second and think about that. I can call the guy at the App store. That’s pretty cool. It makes the whole thing seem a lot more human and a lot less orwellian. I guess I’m OK with the app store, and two plus two is still five.
