A new website aims to publicize the details surrounding the much-maligned iPhone application review process – Apple’s secretive procedures that have been under heavy scrutiny this year, especially since the FCC’s involvement regarding Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice application. Notable iPhone developers have publically called out the company for this “broken” process and some have even announced their retirement from creating iPhone apps, including Facebook app developer, Joe Hewitt, based on philosophical differences with the perceived tyranny of the Apple gatekeepers.
On the recently launched site, App Rejections, iPhone developer turned blogger Adam Martin, has begun to document individual app rejections in an effort to help the development community understand what they can and cannot expect from the company’s stringent, and sometimes seemingly arbitrary, vetting process for new apps.
According to the site’s About page, Martin writes that “it’s now gone from ‘easy’ to ‘tricky’ to avoid getting your app rejected by Apple.” And since Apple has refused to document or discuss the matter of application rejections, he was inspired to create this website as a place to collect all the known application rejections.
The App Rejections site itself is in the format of a basic blog. There aren’t catchy headlines, images, or accompanying snarky commentary in the individual posts as you would find elsewhere in the tech blogosphere – especially on TechCrunch where documenting high-profile app rejections has become somewhat of a pet project of blogger MJ Siegler. At the most, Adam may inject a few opinions of his own as to how certain things could be improved, but he clearly isn’t on any sort of vendetta against the company.
Instead, each post details point-blank exactly why a particular application was rejected, examining information about the APIs used or rules broken in each case. The site also documents when formerly rejected apps finally make it through to the App Store in posts titled “approved” or “overturned,” the latter referring to apps whose developers started some sort of appeal process.
Although the site is brand-new, with only two pages of posts so far, it could easily become an invaluable resource for iPhone developers confused by Apple’s murky review process which can sometimes lead to apps sitting in limbo for months on end before any word from Apple is had.
Developers looking to have their personal experience documented on the site are advised to contact Martin via his company’s Twitter account, @redglassesapps.
