While Apple has lately come out to have improved its App Store approval process , there are still some decidedly uncut edge . Take the case ofMyFrame , a digital photo frame app for the iPad : the computer program was removed from the App Store this calendar week for somewhat turbid reasons , harmonize to the developer .
Russell Ivanovic , a developer for MyFrame ’s Groundhog Software , reported that the company receive a phone call from an Apple employeeabout the program ’s removal . The employee said that the app was being remove as part of a wholesale remotion of “ widget ” apps from the depot . MyFrame allows user to put overlays on their exposure with the clock time , weather , music controller , sticky notes , and more .
Furthermore , not only had MyFrame been on the App Store for some clock time , but Apple had already approve multiple updates to the plan without any flags being raise . While Groundhog is primarily a Java enterprise developer , the company had recently branched out onto Apple ’s program with its first app , Tennis Stats ; MyFrame was only its second diligence .
No specific prohibition on “ widget ” apps appears in Apple ’s developer agreement , unlike the well advertise — if murky — prohibition on pornographic or malicious content . Groundhog was not enjoin what it could do to cook the programme and resubmit it , or to whom it could appeal the decision .
“ It ’s a fate harder to invest time and money in a platform when the risk is that even after your practical software is acquire it can still be removed , ” Ivanovic toldMacworldby atomic number 99 - post . “ Not for violating exist pattern , but for despoil novel rules that Apple makes up after the fact . ”
Ivanovic also write an vitamin E - ring armor missive to Steve Jobs , and received a reply reading only :
We are not allowing apps that make their own desktops . Sorry .
The response would seem to suggest that Apple is targeting practical program that mimic a desktop computing surround , peradventure in rise of the release of iPhone oculus sinister 4.0 , which includes multitasking capabilities . alike apps , such asDesktop for iPad , appear to likewise have disappeared from the store .
“ We only want two things from Apple , ” said Groundhog CEO Grant Steinberg in a freestanding einsteinium - mail . “ Clarity and consistency . That ’s it , then let us do our caper and ultimately the customer will determine if we did it well . ”
Apple ’s developer agreement does say the company can remove software for understanding not covered in the document , which understandably makes many developers uncomfortable . MyFrame was an instal product that was take away with no admonition , and there ’s no other option for Groundhog to mete out the app as is , short of porting the full broadcast to another program like Android , which would require a not insignificant amount of time and effort .
And the MyFrame place is n’t about to ingratiate Apple with developer at large . Ivanovic had penneda previous postlargely supportive of many of Apple ’s determination about the App Store ; needless to say , he ’s rethinking that position in light of MyFrame ’s treatment .
“ I suspect this will make us a pile more cautious in future , specially when it comes to releasing fresh applications , ” Ivanovic enjoin .
It ’s not a far stretchiness to say that many other developer might undergo a similar conversion should they notice their own mathematical product in Apple ’s crosshairs .
As the iPhone is poised to take the spotlight at next week ’s Worldwide Developer Conference , it ’s for certain sorry timing for Apple to have these cover issues once again brought to the vanguard . And despite the prediction that has built for iPhone 4.0 , addressing business organisation about the App Store would be a welcome development .
