Being successful generates a lot of talk and brings positive and both negative criticism. Apple App store has around 300,000 applications. Everyday new applications are received and rejected for different reasons. The reasons can stir controversies as happened with the Android magazine.
It’s no surprise that news about Apple rejecting Android magazine from its App store has been circulating in the mobile application development [1] community. The plain reason given for the rejection by the Apple representative was that the magazine had only Android content so it cannot be on the App Store.
Going by the facts the magazine rejected was developed by Media Provider who also publishes an iPhone magazine. This magazine was developed as a counterpart to the iPhone magazine. The iPhone magazine is available in iTunes and this one was suppose to be submitted to iTunes application store to complement the iPhone edition.
The ban has posed a new question for Dixon, CEO of Media Provider who is now pondering on the consequences if he comes up with more general mobile phone magazine apps.
Apple is not new to such criticism and has faced it before as well. It has been accused for being called a walled garden and having strict censorship policies. There was another such controversy in the past when a developer was asked to remove his Android reference for approval at the App store.
Now the recent move by Apple has again raised eyebrows in certain segments of the mobile world who take it has a high handed attitude of Apple.
Some people are of the view that this move should not have come as a surprise as there is no reason why Apple would want to promote its competitor’s product. While others think that the attitude of Apple and the total control it exhibits on the App store can be overbearing.
Links:
[1] http://www.intagleo.co.uk/mobile-applications-development.aspx