Apple has just published the guidelines it uses to determine whether apps submitted to the App Store get approved or not.
the complete document is accessible only to registered developers, but Engadget has reproduced the more salient ones.
these include:
"We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don't work unless the parents set them up (many don't). So know that we're keeping an eye out for the kids."
"We have lots of serious developers who don't want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour."
"If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps."
"This is a living document, and new apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app will trigger this."
"If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products."
the document ends with:
"Above all else, join us in trying to surprise and delight users. Show them their world in innovative ways, and let them interact with it like never before. In our experience, users really respond to polish, both in functionality and user interface. Go the extra mile. Give them more than they expect. And take them places where they have never been before. We are ready to help."
the latter is a strange amalgam of "your world, your imagination" and "fast, easy, fun".
from two of my three-most-favourite companies-in-all-the-world (the other being Citroën, of course :-P ), i am so reminded of the closing paragraph of Orwell's Animal Farm :
"...Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
