Thanks to Daring Fireball for the heads up on the iPhone Application Graveyard, which lists all the apps that Apple has removed or not approved. It’s not quite comprehensive – there are a few more mentioned over at iPhonefootprint.
Looking through the apps that didn’t make it, I saw one I hadn’t heard of before – Freedom Time by Juggleware. This app counted down the last days of George W. Bush in the Oval Office. But it never made it to the store.
So why wasn’t this app made available to iPhone users? If the email received by the developers direct from Steve Jobs is genuine, then it’s because he thought “…this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point?”
The point is that when Apple originally outlined the App Store restrictions, it only mentioned the following:
- illegal
- malicious
- unforeseen
- porn
- privacy
- bandwidth hog
It seems that unforeseen has since expanded to encompass:
- duplication (MailWrangler, Podcaster)
- taste (PullMyFinger, Slasher)
- high cost, low functionality (I Am Rich)
- copyright infringement (Tris – fair enough)
- SDK violation (Light)
- tethering (NetShare)
And now, with Freedome Time – politics.
Aside from the fact that Apple should really let the market decide, the censoring of an app because it will offend someone’s politics is ludicrous.
Doing a little App Store digging, it seems Apple has already allowed both Obama and McCain inauguration countdown timers onto the store, so why not Freedom Time? What if iDemocrat on the App Store offends my sensibilities?
So what was really wrong with Freedome Time? Unfortunately we don’t really know, and until Apple has clear and explicit policies, rejections will continue to take place, and developers will continue to waste their time.