Barefoot Alchemy

Have you been keeping up with Apple’s App Store woes of late? I must admit that I seem to recall them popping up every now and then, but the latest one has really caught my eye. That being the removal of the VoiceCentral app by Riverturn by Apple from it’s App Store.

Riverturn’s ‘transcription’ of a recent conversation with an App Store rep is detailed in There’s No App for That.

My oversimplification of the conversation is this:

Riverturn: Can you tell us why our app was rejected?

Apple: Because you didn’t follow all the rules?

Riverturn: What are the rules?

Apple: We’re not telling.

Huh?

How can Apple, in good conscience, expect app developers to follow rules that Apple won’t even share with them? And how can you allow an app to be sold for four months then pull it without explicit information as to what is wrong with it?

Perhaps Apple should read Robert Fulghum’s, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. There are several items that are applicable there, but a new one, just for Apple should be, if you won’t share your rules with developers, don’t hold them accountable to them.

A blog about this and that…

A place for me to share the knowledge others have shared with me…

And a place for me to share my interests…

Take your shoes off and stay a while…

Cause everything’s better barefoot!

I got what I think to be a legitimate Google Wave invite. Funny thing is, however, that I found it quite by accident in the spam folder of the associated Gmail account!

I went ahead and sent in a possible phishing report to Google just to be safe.

If it is in fact a ‘real’ invite, I don’t know what to think about the fact that Google considers the mail it sends to me as spam. I don’t really think I should need to train Gmail to accept email from Google, but I may have to.

Take a look at it below and let me know what you think.

Looks like we may actually get to know the rules that Apple plays by with respect to it’s app approval/denial process as the FCC has decided it wants to know why Google Voice was rejected.

See Why The FCC Wants To Smash Open The iPhone via TechCrunch for the details.

The part I am most interested in is the following:

The FCC also wants Apple to explain the arbitrariness of its app approval process:

5. What other applications have been rejected for use on the iPhone and for what reasons? Is there a list of prohibited applications or of categories of applications that is provided to potential vendors/developers? If so, is this posted on the iTunes website or otherwise disclosed to consumers?

6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

It has always concerned me that Apple has seemed to be very vague, if not secretive, with respect to numbers 5 and 6 above. It is just not good sense to make your partners (developers) have to follow rules that you will not share with them. It may work for you in the short term, but long term, it is a recipe for failure.

Take a look at how you are interacting with you clients, customers, vendors, partners and such and examine your expectations of them within the framework of how you do business with them. Then make sure they ‘know the rules’ you expect them to play by or don’t expect to hold them accountable. That’s only fair.