Mac App Store compliance

[Richard Gaskin]

Richard Miller wrote:

> Could you expand on the issue of non-standard GUI elements?... perhaps
> some examples of what is not acceptable?

Hard to say specifically beyond those I cited earlier.  There seems to 
be a subjective element to the App Store review process, so the precise 
expectations a developer must comply with may not be knowable in 
advance, and conceivably may differ depending on the personality of the 
individual reviewer your app winds up with.

> If self-updating is not allowed, what is the easiest alternative? Or is
> this app store going to operate like the iPad store, where the OS always
> informs the user when an update is available?

AFAIK, if you implement a bug fix or enhancement for your customers, the 
only way to make it available to them is to resubmit it to Apple's 
review queue and wait a few weeks for it to go through that process.

For those of us who strive to deliver bug fixes as close to instantly as 
possible, this is a disappointment for both ourselves and our customers.

I suppose the upside is that it encourages us to be more disciplined 
before release, to strive for the uncommon role of making one of the 
very few software products ever to exist that ships with zero bugs. ;)

If there's an alternate means by which we can shorten the 
time-to-delivery for our customers who use the App Store I'd be very 
glad to be wrong on this.


It's also unclear whether App Store presence is exclusive; that is, if 
you sell an app through the App Store can you also sell it at your own 
web site?

If so, that would provide a means of delivering timely updates without 
the unnecessary delay of waiting for a third-party bogged down by 
reviewing other apps that have nothing to do with your relationship with 
your customer.

If this sort of non-exclusivity is allowed, it then begs the question of 
whether the publisher is allowed to set their own price points which may 
differ from those in the App Store.

I can imagine more than a few developers who make strong products 
offering them at a lower price when purchased at their own store vs. the 
App Store, so that those who prefer the App Store shoulder the cost for 
that convenience while other customers aren't burdened by paying for 
that overhead when it doesn't benefit them.

Given the Sherman Act's wording about price fixing, I suspect Apple's 
solution to avoid this is to simply not allow an app sold through the 
App Store to be sold elsewhere.

But again, I would be very happy to be wrong on this.

Anyone here know whether the App Store agreement is an exclusive one?

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
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