App rejected now the 3rd time - because...

Matthias Rebbe matthias_livecode_150811 at m-r-d.de
Sat Dec 1 18:26:46 EST 2012


Hi,

today my new app was rejected the 3rd time.

The first rejection was because the app was to simple for Apple Review Team. They argued
it was just a browser showing only local content. And apps, that are web sites bundled as apps
may be rejected.

Btw: The content was a 3D Animation showing my  customer´s logo which
the user could rotate left / right by swiping his finger over the screen.

The app is (now it seems was) planned  to be part of a big marketing campaign.
It was intended to be something like a lucky charm, which the user can rotate
like other do rub  a "rabbit´s foot" . Is "rub" the correct word for that?

After talking to our customer they agreed to extend functionality and so i added 
Monte´s BarCode Reader external and some other of his externals. The customer already
planned to use QR Codes in his campaign, so this would be a usefull extension for the campaign.

The user can now scan QR Codes and take appropriate actions after scanning
like sending sms, sending email, do phone call, open an URL in Browser
or add the scanned vCard to the address book.

But it was rejected again. Now Apple told me, that the UI experience is very important
and that i have to follow their UI design… blah blah blah.

I then recreated all from scratch. Used Navbars, toolbars and so on. I even optimized
and extended the features of the QR Code reader.

But again it was rejected, now with this explanation:

"We found that your app only provides a very limited set of features. 
It only include a single animated image as well as an open source code bar code scanner. 
While we value simplicity, we consider simplicity to be uncomplicated - not limited in features and functionality.
…
Apps should provide valuable utility or entertainment, draw people in by offering compelling capabilities or content, 
or enable people to do something they couldn't do before or in a way they couldn't do it before."

Btw.: The "animated image" is a set of 36 images which rotate only when the user swipes of the image using HTML5 and javascript. It is not an animated gif or something.

I am not sure, if the reviewer is even knowing about the implemented actions after scanning   QR Code. Maybe she/he only tested with normal barcodes. 

I responded to this rejection now, explained what features the app now has and asked if the many fart apps in the app store are more useful than our app.

But anyway I am stumped now and fed up.


Matthias


--
Matthias Rebbe
matthias (at) rebbe.tk
Tel +49.5741.310000
Tel +49.160.5504462
--
"Life is too short for boring code"











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