Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines

Big changes to the App Store guidelines from Apple:

We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.

Great news for developers, really. I’ll have details in a bit, but in short, they’ve relented regarding the ban on third-party development tools, and they’re promising greater transparency on the review process.

Thursday, 9 September 2010