Developer Steven Frank is the co-founder of the software company Panic, which mostly builds shareware applications for the Mac operating system. In recent weeks, Frank has come out against a host of Apple's policies, going so far as to boycott the iPhone entirely.
He has also laid out a specific series of suggestions — some might say demands — for Apple to meet in order to win him back. Frank's argument focused on Apple's unclear or otherwise inconsistent policy when it came to App Store policy. In some cases, his complaints directly addressed Apple's "muddy" policy toward so-called obscene content.
Frank cited Apple's rejection of Google's Voice app as the last straw. Google Voice is a versatile product that would let users organize phone numbers and make inexpensive international calls. This decision sparked outrage from the tech world, but it was mostly consistent with Apple's policy to reject apps that directly replicate, and thereby compete with, its own products. For example, it took Apple months to finally allow competing web browsers into the App Store.
Frank lambasted this decision on his personal website.
"My position is not that every app should be approved — it’s that rejected apps should be rejected for reasons that at the very least make consistent, logical sense, without garbage form-letter rejection notices that explain nothing, and with at least some sort of guidance available to the developer about how to fix the problem instead of meeting them with a brick wall," he said.
Calling the iPhone world "toxic," he publicly announced his boycott. His move prompted responses from Apple's brass that included the addition of a new email address that developers can use to contest App Store rejections.
But then Apple drew more fire for reportedly censoring a dictionary app called Ninjawords. Despite its name, Ninjawords isn't a gag app, but merely a lightweight dictionary. Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller later said that Apple didn't ask the developers to remove any words, but nonetheless, the app only made it into the App Store light a few "objectionable" words and slapped with a 17+ rating, the store's harshest.
Frank maintained that Apple acted inconsistently.
"I’m still not sure I fully understand the reasoning that there are a certain set of “more vulgar” (to use Schiller’s own words) swears that are somehow worse than conventional swear words, which therefore requires Ninjawords to have a more restrictive age rating than other store-approved dictionaries," Frank said. "What’s odd is this also contradicts the developers’ own claims that the rejection letter they received cited only examples of conventional swear words as objectionable."
Apple has also drawn fire for rejecting an app version of the ancient lovemaking text the "Kama Sutra" because of its content.
