App Store Rejection of the Week: Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff:

The stated reason for the rejection of my free app is that Apple requires “sufficient amounts of content to appeal to a broad audience.” Putting aside the fact that this pretty much makes specialty content ineligible for iPhone or iPad apps, it’s also a pretty fudgy standard. For instance, I get a bigger readership for my online columns than I do for my Vanity Fair columns — so Vanity Fair shouldn’t make the cut?

Where we are is that Apple is now creating a distribution system for books and periodicals — in a sense, no different from a newsstand or bookstore — which it proposes to regulate as it sees fit, without explanation, recourse, or standards.

I don’t get it. I looked at the Android version of his app, and it’s effectively a dedicated RSS reader for Wolff’s columns, with ads from AdMob. There are dozens of apps like this in Apple’s App Store.

★ Tuesday, 27 April 2010