4.3 guideline nightmare

Hi, My company is in a simaler situation. We create test prep apps for many certifications and have recently run into the 4.3 Spam rejection problem. Have you had any luck apealing the rejection?

We are in the same situation. Apple only manages like a robot without analyzing each case. It is desperate and frustrating.

Our customers are planning to take legal action against Apple.

This is the worst case with Apple Guidelines that we've ever seen in 9 years of doing apps. Never had any issues prior to this, and we always create unique content for the Appstore.

This is a nightmare for developers, and I'm not sure how this will play out, but I see a lot of developers getting out of doing anything to do with Apple altogether.

It's such a shame that it has come to this. We've been doing this for 9 years now, and this new guideline will definitley put us in the position of not focusing on Appstore products any longer.

Apple, if you are reading this, you need to reconsider your stance on this new guideline.

We understand that clones and other apps affect the Appstore, but this guideline is being taken way too far, and too drastic.

I am in the same boat. To target the little guys who are honest and create apps for small businesses that have different criterias and looks. We don't even make money off of it or are we targeting a wide audience. I mean if the YMCA in Louisville want their own app, we will create it and it will have similar funtionality as it hooks into our API scheduling system. The YMCA is targeting that area, not trying to make money. We dont use a commercialized template or app generation service. Our apps are unique, not another flashlight app. I mean are there really more then one YMCA of Louisville app?

• 4.2.6 Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected.

• 4.3 SpamDon’t create multiple Bundle IDs of the same app. If your app has different versions for specific locations, sports teams, universities, etc., consider submitting a single app and provide the variations using in-app purchase. Also avoid piling on to a category that is already saturated; the App Store has enough ****, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra apps already. Spamming the store may lead to your removal from the Developer Program.

Does creating seperate account solve this issue? If so that would be they mean they would have to pay $100 a year for a developer license.

Same here. We have done dozens of apps which serve a particular type of business. Needless to say we try to produce them in a way that it is cost efficient for those businesses. But each app has a totally different look and the content is always different (each one has different data and data sources).

Yes Apple is reject saying these violate 4.3. We have been doing this for years, have 700 clients and service customers from small to the largest of their kind in the world.

Apple review used to be great and smooth and fast. Now it's become one reject after another that makes no sense with this 4.3. reject being the latest "reject fad".

Same issue here, We develop games of multiple animal hunting and apple says to put all the animals in one app and publish game as one. Which doesnt makes sense, there's a difference between gorilla hunter and dinosaur hunter but apple review team wont get it and rejects the game ! 4.3 is being pain in the A** for developers.

Your issue is the exact scenario that actually makes sense. Are you going to create 100 animal hunting games? You should have one app and they choose the animal game within in, you are bloating the store.

However, in our case, we actually have distinct customers, that want their own app. They do not want to share between competitors and other organizations. This should not be combined into one app, this 4.3 does not make sense for us and is cause by apps like yours which cause bloat in the app store.

Hello, any suggestion? How to follow up these steps, omg. Apple please let me work.

Did you manage to get this issue resolved and successfully update your apps through the review process? If so do you have any tips or help!

It's amazing how they fail to see what they are doing to legitimate businesses. I wish they do before is too late for all.

Here same rejection for 4 different card games,

I spent five years in developing my small business,

I developed 4 card games quite popuplar in Italy, I use a similar interface for the games, but rules are totally different

Scala 40, Rummy, Machiavelli and Pinnacola (the italian Pinochle totally different from the American one)

players will search on the store those games by name, they want to play Scala 40 or Pinnacola or Machiavelli or Rummy and those app name is very important, how should I name a all in one card game? "All Card Games", whoever will serach "All Card Games" on the App Store?

minding to move defintively my app to Android and suggest to my customers (around 100.000 players to move to Andoriod too)

Same problem here...anyone knows how to handle this? Should I change colors, icons, menus?
Functionality is very different in my apps, while the UI is similar.. so maybe that is the cause of the rejection?
Any hope? Any tips?

We too have been caught by this. The robotic response and complete lack of any deeper insight is most frustrating. We even received a 4.3 rejection for an app which is brand-new and has NEVER been published before. Despite asking for clarification, we simply received the cut and paste answer. We are a small company, my customers don't want to aggregate their content, neither will they sign up for a devloper account on their own (which I read from others actually makes little difference in any case) as they can't agree to be bound by conditions over which they have no control. We are the developers, it is natural for us to work in this world, our clients don't want the hassle or lack the expertise and that is why they pay us to do the work. It's like the world has gone mad!

I fail to understand what is the true purpose of this decision when it comes to white label businesses that create value, like online stores and ordering systems. The only think that makes sense is that there is a kind of agreement with large businesses to eliminate smaller ones. Other than that, I do not see where Apple or the end user benefits from banning an online store offer an app to sell their products and build this with a framework to save time and money.

Let's fight together! Contact me at vickizhang1983 @ gmail . com