Mobile App Developer Ousted by Apple
There has long been uncertainty on the exact process that it takes to get an application passed the Apple powers that be. Their ability to simply turn down an application from the approval process seems to be loosely defined, or undefined depending on how you see it. So it begs to question how one developer was able to get over 1,000 apps into the Apple store without raising any flags. (Molinker apps)
All eyes were directed to Chinese mobile app developer Molinker when a friend of a writer from the iPhoneography photoblog saw these obviously poorly done apps scoring very high in the user rating systems. Very few of the reviews offered a one or two star rating and it was a cause for concern. So highly were these apps thought of that Apple even selected one of the apps for the Staff Pick of the Week. This alone brings to mind questions on whether the apps are really selected by the staff or if there’s some undefined parameters that make an app “pick of the week”, as undefined as the process to get approved.
To raise alarms, two letters were sent to Apple’s marketing head, Phil Schiller, who by the second letter acknowledged that there was some misappropriation by the company Molinker within the Apple iTunes App store. The return letter simply stated that the developer had been ousted and that “gaming” of the system would not be tolerated. Not only was the developer ousted, but so were the 1,000+ apps affiliated with this developer (approx. 1% of apple’s app store).
So how does the app store move forward without even so much as making this example known to all other developers. Misappropriations such as exchanging unlock codes for positive reviews can still run rampant, and what if the misappropriation is not as easily defined the next as it was this time?
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