Comments on: Apple: You Can’t Use Images of the iPhone on the iPhone

By: iPhone App Rejections Get Highlighted on New Site

iPhone App Rejections Get Highlighted on New Site — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:31:16 +0000

[...] Trench Run was accepted despite containing a huge image of an iPhone, something which has been a pretty boilerplate reason for rejection of apps put out by much smaller studios and independent devs before now. In fact, Apple put out a blanket [...]

By: The Great Firewall of Apple’s App Store

The Great Firewall of Apple’s App Store — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:16:48 +0000

[...] offensive, allowed, but “South Park” isn’t? It’s all so vague and, worse, inconsistent – something we’ve written about for almost a year. Sometimes the company approves apps [...]

By: Create Digital Motion » MSA Remote Controlling Ableton & VDMX: App Still Rejected, This Time For Artwork

Fri, 15 May 2009 07:20:28 +0000

[...] is a reasonably well documented failure mode, so hopefully this is the final invisible, electrified hurdle they expect [...]

By: Baby Shaker App Fiasco Underscores Need for Change from Apple

Baby Shaker App Fiasco Underscores Need for Change from Apple — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:56:43 +0000

[...] a little while ago, we published a story about Apple’s inconsistent review process for the App Store. In that case, the question was one of imagery, and focused on some icons that [...]

By: jbelkin

jbelkin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:24:05 +0000

Again, you have to blame the trademark process & laws as they stand now. If you do not protect your trademark, trade dress, etc … eventually it will used against you that it’s “common” and you lose protection so you have to err on the side of caution.

By: Richard Lomas

Richard Lomas — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:23:52 +0000

How stupid.

I’m surprised they are allowed to call their apps “iphone apps”…

After all, the word “iphone” is in there and surely you don’t want people getting confused and thinking that an iPhone app is for use on an iPhone!

Jesus Apple. Worry about something that frickin’ matters….honestly….

By: Olternaut

Olternaut — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:32:43 +0000

@Boris

Fine. Let them protect their brand. But bloody hell at least TELL THE DEVELOPER WHY AND WHAT EXACTLY was BEING REJECTED instead of having the poor developer sit there like a fool wasting time trying to figure out EXACTLY what was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Boris

Boris — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:16:14 +0000

I totally understand Apple’s point of view. It’s about brand protection and consistency across the board. Otherwise you would have hundreds of representations of the iPhone sprouting in the apps, leaving the users dealing with multiple representations of the iphone. What they should do is release an icon that developers could use.

By: Gazoobee

Gazoobee — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:55:49 +0000

I disagree with your assertion that Apple “… can’t really get by on the assumption that these are growing pains with the app review process.”

There is still a flood of applications coming into the store, there are still people reviewing them at Apple who are not developers but simply “reading from a script” and making decisions that may not be the same as other reviewers and all these decisions still need to be reviewed by others before anything is final. It seems obvious that these kinds of things will still happen from time to time and I see nothing unusual in this at all.

The kind of bad press Apple is getting over these things can be put down solely to the ungrateful developers who post about their problems before the review process is even over. If you look at most of these kinds of stories (about app store rejections), and go into any *detail*, you will find that almost every single one of them is eventually admitted into the store, and that the only problem was with the *initial* rejection, or that the initial rejection actually *did* make sense etc. It’s the DEVELOPERS blogging about their problems before they are even officially problems and spreading that sh*t around the net that is causing the furor.

As an aside, you should at least mention (if you know about it), that Apple has applied for a Trademark on the iconic iPhone shape and appearance. This was done way back before it even came out. Trademarks are different from copyright in that the company is forced by law to constantly defend them or lose them. If Apple did not complain about people making iPhone icons, they would lose the Trademark and anyone who wanted to could use iPhone images in their products and advertising.

To me, this is just developer-produced sh*tstorm in a teacup number (insert number here), and only worth a big long yawn.

By: PiperSon

PiperSon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:15:51 +0000

While I agree that this is silly – maybe there is a reason for it… perhaps the new iPhone isn’t going to look like the icon? Shouldn’t really be cause to reject it though…