iPhone ‘Podcaster’ App Rejected Because It Duplicates iTunes Functionality

Flabbergasting. This is the worst reason for an app to be rejected yet. As the author points out, by this logic, Apple could have rejected PCalc (for duplicating the built-in Calculator app), or any of the various note-taking apps. Check out the demo — Podcaster is clearly a serious app that provides functionality far beyond the iPhone’s built-in podcast support.

This stinks to high hell. Jon Rentzsch nails it in this tweet: the NDA is a mere annoyance, but a “you can’t compete against Apple” policy is so wrong it breaks the platform. It is indefensible.

★ Friday, 12 September 2008