Because Chipman is just a messenger, often there are cock-ups and contradictions within the App rejection process.
That might be fun, except people are investing time and money into their Apps, so it's obviously critical that they get the right sort of guidance, and in a timely fashion.
Here are our top 8 Chipman cock-ups:
1. iDonAid - iDonAid is a non profit organization that developed a donationware publishing platform for humanitarian organizations. Richard Chipman rejected their App citing a policy specific to charities that, by his own admission, is not published anywhere by Apple.
2. TheyFit - TheyFit is a European company who make (no exaggeration) 95 different sizes of condom. They submitted an App in November 2011 that let users calculate which of the condoms would fit them the best, by inputting their dimensions. Richard Chipman rejected the App, calling it "obscene and likely to offend" which was odd, because in January 2013 he then approved an App called Condom Size that did exactly the same thing, except worse, because it actually asked the user to measure his penis using the iPhone itself (literally, as it sounds). Read more about TheyFit's experience with Chipman here.
3. Lingopal - Richard Chipman rejected this App because it allowed a user to translate the phrase "I've never kissed anyone from your country before" citing "Applications must not Contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc..)". But then he accepted an App called Sexy Spinna with the word C*NT in its UI (user interface). Which was approved for 12 year olds.
4. Finger Flex - Chipman rejected this App that made light of Apple's iPhone4 design fail (antennagate - where holding the iPhone in a certain way killed reception and dropped your call) claiming that the original name of the App, and it's functionality, did not match up, and could lead to confusion. Hmmmm, fine you might think - a reasonable quality control to have in place. Except the original App submission was called "Avoid Holding It That Way". Which happens to be exactly the phrase Steve Jobs himself used to explain the solution to Apple's design mistake.
5. Evi - remember Siri, the voice recognition "personal assistant" that Apple unveiled to make the iPhone 4S press event a bit more substantial? Well it turns out that Evi, an independent App that took the concept but did it better, violated an App policy. So Chipman rejected it, citing "Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected". Confusingly similar... or better? Tomato, tomatoe?
6. Drones+ - a simple idea: send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America’s many undeclared wars (using publicly available information, and in text format - no graphic images). But Chipman rejected it, calling it “objectionable and crude” Which is odd, as he happily approved Sperm Wars.
7. Google Voice - this is an easy one. Chipman rejected Google Voice, because it let you make voice calls without utilising your carrier network. And then approved Skype, which let's you make voice calls without utilising your carrier network.
8. In April 2013, Chipman killed AppGratis. AppGratis was a company with FOURTY-FIVE employees, that recently raised $13.5M in Series A funding. Read about how Chipman killed it, a week after approving it's iPad app. Madness.
User "Davey" over at iphonedevsdk.com ran the following experiment, to check Chipman's consistency:
"’We have discovered that identical apps, submitted at the same time, have about a 20% chance of being rejected. What’s worse, the reason for the rejection is rarely consistent. In fact, most of the time the identical apps that get rejected are rejected for 3 or more different reasons. Yet, that same app will also be approved for no reason other than it was in front of the right reviewer."
Know of more examples? Tell us!
That might be fun, except people are investing time and money into their Apps, so it's obviously critical that they get the right sort of guidance, and in a timely fashion.
Here are our top 8 Chipman cock-ups:
1. iDonAid - iDonAid is a non profit organization that developed a donationware publishing platform for humanitarian organizations. Richard Chipman rejected their App citing a policy specific to charities that, by his own admission, is not published anywhere by Apple.
2. TheyFit - TheyFit is a European company who make (no exaggeration) 95 different sizes of condom. They submitted an App in November 2011 that let users calculate which of the condoms would fit them the best, by inputting their dimensions. Richard Chipman rejected the App, calling it "obscene and likely to offend" which was odd, because in January 2013 he then approved an App called Condom Size that did exactly the same thing, except worse, because it actually asked the user to measure his penis using the iPhone itself (literally, as it sounds). Read more about TheyFit's experience with Chipman here.
3. Lingopal - Richard Chipman rejected this App because it allowed a user to translate the phrase "I've never kissed anyone from your country before" citing "Applications must not Contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc..)". But then he accepted an App called Sexy Spinna with the word C*NT in its UI (user interface). Which was approved for 12 year olds.
4. Finger Flex - Chipman rejected this App that made light of Apple's iPhone4 design fail (antennagate - where holding the iPhone in a certain way killed reception and dropped your call) claiming that the original name of the App, and it's functionality, did not match up, and could lead to confusion. Hmmmm, fine you might think - a reasonable quality control to have in place. Except the original App submission was called "Avoid Holding It That Way". Which happens to be exactly the phrase Steve Jobs himself used to explain the solution to Apple's design mistake.
5. Evi - remember Siri, the voice recognition "personal assistant" that Apple unveiled to make the iPhone 4S press event a bit more substantial? Well it turns out that Evi, an independent App that took the concept but did it better, violated an App policy. So Chipman rejected it, citing "Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected". Confusingly similar... or better? Tomato, tomatoe?
6. Drones+ - a simple idea: send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America’s many undeclared wars (using publicly available information, and in text format - no graphic images). But Chipman rejected it, calling it “objectionable and crude” Which is odd, as he happily approved Sperm Wars.
7. Google Voice - this is an easy one. Chipman rejected Google Voice, because it let you make voice calls without utilising your carrier network. And then approved Skype, which let's you make voice calls without utilising your carrier network.
8. In April 2013, Chipman killed AppGratis. AppGratis was a company with FOURTY-FIVE employees, that recently raised $13.5M in Series A funding. Read about how Chipman killed it, a week after approving it's iPad app. Madness.
User "Davey" over at iphonedevsdk.com ran the following experiment, to check Chipman's consistency:
"’We have discovered that identical apps, submitted at the same time, have about a 20% chance of being rejected. What’s worse, the reason for the rejection is rarely consistent. In fact, most of the time the identical apps that get rejected are rejected for 3 or more different reasons. Yet, that same app will also be approved for no reason other than it was in front of the right reviewer."
Know of more examples? Tell us!