After having (like many others) this illustrative phone call with Richard Chipman (he used exactly the same words as in the referring MacRumors article) I didn’t capitulate since I was really angry about the fact that there were identical applications in the store that got accepted. Well – I don’t blame my competitors for the fact that they got lucky but I needed clarity. I wanted to know if the App Store might be the platform I want to make business with. And from a business point of view this was unacceptable. On one hand there are lucky people who can make a fortune with their apps and on the other hand there are the ones appearing on Richards desk to be told that there is a policy that doesn’t fit with Apples present company philosophy.

Since Richard isn’t the one who is authorized to discuss any matter with you and Big Steve would not listen because he isn’t wasting his time with crappy $0.99 apps I wrote a letter to a higher executive in the hope that someone at Apple is using his brain and realises that it’s against any rules of a free market (as far as you can tell the App Store a free market) and against any common sense to treat companies with identical products in these two different ways. Well – what should I say: I didn’t expect an answer to my email. But I got one. I was told that they were dicussing my matter in the team:

…we are currently discussing your app and the others. I’ll keep you updated.

This was 10 days ago. Yesterday when I was about to leave for a birthday party, I got a phone call:

Hello. This is Richard … I wanted to tell you that we make an exception to your application … Can you resubmit the application? … Can you do this fast?

Well I don’t remember his exact words because I was too baffled but I delayed my departure, resubmitted my app, and voila: Four hours later my app was ready for sale!

Finally Apple did the right thing! They cannot treat companies with identical products in different ways. What I still can’t understand are their various reasons (ideas) and policies that led to the bunch of App Store rejections over the last two months. But take this message: Never give up if you feel treated unequal!

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Dear Helmut,

Your application, iBattery Pro 1.0, is requiring unexpected additional time for review.   We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,
iPhone Developer Program

As you can read in many other blog posts, this often happens when you complain and mention similar applications that have not been recjected. No I’m in the infinite review loop. Congratulation Apple, you just won another friend!

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