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Apple Rejecting Single-Station Radio iPhone Apps

Categories: Developer, iPhone
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, November 25th, 2010 at 11:58 AM
RadioStation

Apparently Apple’s approval system for iPhone applications likens single-station radio programs to fart apps, now. Developer DJBApps had attempted to submit 10 apps to the App Store and had them all rejected, being cited secion 2.20 of the developer agreement: “Developers ‘spamming’ the App Store with many versions of similar apps will be removed from the iOS Developer Program.” Even an appeal directly to His Steveness received a typically-terse “Sorry, we’ve made our decision.” If they had put all of the stations into the same app, the situation would have been a little different.

To be fair, the App Store certainly has a spam problem, and you can hardly blame them for wanting to prune the tree, as it were. However, completely innocent apps have often been caught in the crossfire, like that political cartoon app, Google Voice, and Grooveshark.

I’m really not a fan of this development since I hit up WeFunk Radio on my iPod Touch pretty regularly, and as a small community-supported station, I really wouldn’t expect them to release (let alone have the resources to develop) a multi-station funk music app. DJBApps brings up a lot of valid points, like Apple won’t allow metadata to mention competing mobile platforms, but they expect radio stations to play nice and squeeze in together under one app. There’s also not much of a case for duplicate functionality, since these radio stations target vastly different audiences. In the end, if Apple sticks by this rule, it’s no real skin off my nose – it just means we’ll see an exodus of quality apps to the other more reasonable app stores offered by BlackBerry, Android, Palm, and Microsoft.

[via Radio Magazine]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • Anonymous

    Very regret, sir.
    In fact, most Apple app are simple, useless, weak intelligence ! But on the other hand, the apple apps occur everywhere. so look for the alternate of single-station radio app is very easy. so, it doesn’t matter. sir.

  • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

    <3 ren and stimpy!

  • Smeg_head

    if each app is a single station, why can’t they just implement it as a web app (potentially authenticated if they need membership etc) and make it open to everyone? I think the main approval issue is that apple would prefer to not have heaps of apps in the app store that would work just as well as web apps. I guess the downside for the devs is that if you’re not in the app store you are less likely to be found, but then again the app store is so full these days that is an issue anyways…

  • http://www.chasingtherunnershigh.com Rcharbon

    Since he’s trying to make money off of the work of others, I don’t feel too bad. If he had submitted an app for only one station, as he would if he were actually representing the station, it probably would have been accepted.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HEB5OP4W7FBH74HLA5MJ7F2QY4 Alex

    hmmmm….

  • Editore

    Jim Barcus DJB apps is a crook! Not only do not want to follow the right rules but we cheated as other applications for $ 1,000 that he never realized.
    The Italian Police and the Interpol has been informed and has opened an investigation