NIN Reaction to iPhone App Store Rejection

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,651569,651569#msg-651569

by ironkeith • 17 years ago

86 45 17 years ago

forum.nin.com

ironkeith• 17 years ago

A better link:

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,651569,651569#msg-651569

buugs• 17 years ago

I was thinking the same thing especially with the tie in to walmart's music sales and the questionable safari application bundled with the iphone :)

pj3• 17 years ago

I don't think this is so bad really. Apple's brand is affected by the kind of material it sells and it wants to protect its brand.

It's just like Facebook has porn patrol.

Being a vendor of a product isn't just about moving product, it's about moving product in a direction that you believe makes the world a better place for you to live. Apple has the right to choose how to let people use their platform.

Imagine a world where you have no right who you can and cannot sell your hard work to. Those signs that say, "We have the right to refuse service to anyone" -- all those would have to come down, by law!

I think, right now, that I would prefer a world where a vendor of a service can decide who it does and does not provide that service to than a world where the builder of a product or provider of a service does not have that right.

chaosmachine• 17 years ago

You're missing the point. Apple sells The Downward Spiral in the iTunes store. Not allowing the same content in the App store is just absurd. In fact, the app doesn't even contain the content, it's just accessible through it.

pj3• 17 years ago

what do you suggest is their rationale? Is that the point of this? to point out an irrational decision in the world?

joecode3• 17 years ago

I believe the reason for the apparent contradiction is this: Apple acts as a publicizer for the apps in the app store by letting them into the top-N lists and recent releases. When an "objectionable" app becomes popular, users hold Apple to account. They don't do this with the music store.

As the app store gets more and more crowded, Apple will most likely loosen up. Or maybe they will do the really intelligent thing: allow everything in, but only allow "non-objectionable" material into the top-N and recent releases sections.

jobo• 17 years ago

Who cares about Apple's brand? If you buy a device it should be YOUR device. No one should be able to dictate what content you put on YOUR device.

teej• 17 years ago

Under the same line of reasoning: if I own a brick and mortar store, it should be MY store. I should be able to dictate what I stock on my shelves. If customers don't like it, they can shop elsewhere.

dinkumthinkum3• 17 years ago

What if Apple did this for it's PCs and laptops? It's just making the world a better place right?

dinkumthinkum3• 17 years ago

Also, do you really weep for those poor shop owners that can't refuse service to black people and gays anymore?

ice5nake2• 17 years ago

Huh? Are you serious? The cellphone is the new PC. Let me run whatever applications I want on my computer. Can you imagine in Microsoft said you can only buy software for your computer via our App Store and oh we are going to take a cut of all Windows software.

sadfsa• 17 years ago

I'm never, ever getting an iPhone.

pj3• 17 years ago

You think the Pre is going to be all right? I'm waiting on it, but I've never seen it. What do you suggest as an alternative, I'm about to get a new device.

stanleydrew2• 17 years ago

The g1 running android is pretty great. I've been using it for four months and have very few complaints, plus it's a completely open-source system. The new software update provides an onscreen keyboard if you don't like to type on real keys, but I think having the choice to use a tactile keyboard is really nice. I'll also never own an iphone.

tlrobinson3• 17 years ago

Apropos: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

screwperman• 17 years ago

   ^
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   pg

axod3• 17 years ago

I'm sure Apple will miss you terribly. An app was denied. Big deal. No great loss.

If you really want to run the app, jailbreak your phone and run it.

tlrobinson3• 17 years ago

While I don't think it's a major reason not buy an iPhone, it is actually a fairly big problem. I know of at least 3 high profile apps that have been rejected due to "objectionable content" which was nothing more than a few swear words on content loaded from the web.

My problem, aside from the censorship in the first place, is that they don't follow the same standards in their own apps. Search the YouTube app for any swear word and it will happily give you all the swearing you can handle.

ice5nake2• 17 years ago

Apple wants to make it illegal for you to jailbreak "your" iPhone.

jetako• 17 years ago

Can anyone chime in on the app store review procedure? Is each app assigned an individual review monkey, or is it passed through multiple hands? Methinks Apple needs better screening and performance evaluation of their app store employees. All it takes is a few jackasses in the mix for this to happen. Their rejection policy clearly leaves certain things open for interpretation.

edd• 17 years ago

As far as I am aware from reading around the subject after reading the millionth "the app store sux" article. The best indication we have is from this article: http://www.marco.org/98546611

  "In all cases, the reviewers don’t touch the app until the
  day before approval or rejection. And they don’t seem to
  interact with the app for more than a few minutes.

  The app just sits there for 6-8 days, untouched, then goes
  through an approval or rejection process that, as far as I
  can tell, takes less than 20 minutes for a complex app (and
  probably much less time for a simple one)."

joecode3• 17 years ago

Based on my server logs, it appears there are multiple levels of review. The pattern I usually see is a little interaction after a few days of submitting, then a little more interaction right before approval. In one case, my app got rejected for an interface issue, and it looked like more people were involved. So it seems to be a "red-flag" kind of system.

plusbryan• 17 years ago

Yes, for some apps, the first-stage approval is clearly done by someone fairly non-technical, just reading from a list of things they need to deny apps for. I've had first-level reviewers deny apps for really silly things, in some cases where the problem was the reviewer's command of the english language, rather than the app itself. Resubmitted with no changes and it went through 6 days later.

Oh and there are no appeals at this stage. This isn't a democracy. Resubmit the binary and get to the back of the line, scruffy.

But if you do get forwarded on, it seems to take about 2x as long, and get you to someone inside Apple who knows a thing or two.

klon• 17 years ago

It's sad that Apple can get away with this. Somehow competition is not working like it should in this market.

HolyoakeD• 17 years ago

That's how Apple has always set it out to be. They lock everything down so that competition can't grow properly..

dinkumthinkum3• 17 years ago

Yeah, but that was the other person's point. Apple is still successful. Therefore, competition is not the panacea to solve all the worlds ills, since Apple is behaving so poorly yet we all just pony up the cash for iPhones anyway. :)

NIN Reaction to iPhone App Store Rejection

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