According to recent claims, Apple has stuck a final nail in the coffin as even the App store rejection letters are subject to Apple’s NDA. So not only are you rejected after months of hard labor, but you are not even at liberty to tell anyone about your new found frustration.
In the wake of recent rejections from the App store, reports are stating that Apple has been affixing non-disclosure warnings to the rejection letters themselves, noting “The information contained in this message is under non-disclosure.” While providing or discussing any details of iPhone development is typically a no-no as stated in the NDA, Apple is now making this blatantly clear. Harsh criticisms of the NDA have rang out and numerous developers have publicly announced their rejection, a practice that may no longer be as feasible.
The most recent developer to voice his discontent is Angelo DiNardi, who had gone public about the rejection of his MailWrangler app. Apple had dismissed his submission on the grounds that his application “duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion.”
Podcaster, an application developed to allow users the ability to not only stream podcasts but also be able to download them to listen to at a later time, was also made the subject of rejection. The biggest shame here is that these apps in question have typically been some of the most unique and interesting of them all.
Many developers have viewed Apple’s SDK terms as being far too regulated to promote the evolution and exchange of ideas. Yet developers have found crafty ways to bypass the restrictions by paying each other nominal amounts as “sub contractors.”
