Houston, we have a problem.
Some of you may have seen recently that Apple added a content rating system to the store. Unfortunately, they’ve decided to consider all applications that have access to 3rd party content, as a potential loophole and therefore must all be rated 17+.
“According to Apple, apps that feature an embedded web browser or provide access to 3rd party content also automatically require the 17+ rating”
In this particular case though, Postie does not allow access to 3rd party content. Postie only connects to our backend servers to access the content that the user themselves added to the system. What’s that content? Their e-mail settings. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
So, explain to me again why Postie contains mature or suggestive themes? Oh wait, it doesn’t. It also doesn’t have a built in browser. And, of course, doesn’t provide access to 3rd party content.
The real issue here though, is that I’ll have to reject the binary and resubmit. My politely worded response to Apple questioning their decision will go unanswered. I’ll be waiting in queue again. I won’t have access to promo codes for any of my applications.
I still love you Apple, but I think we need to go visit Dr. Phil. I question what this means for Boxcar, my twitter push notification app, which has had an update waiting in queue even longer than Postie. It was submitted post 3.0, but managed to slip in with a 4+ rating.
