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Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

forums.getpebble.com

91–100 of 414 posts

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#91
post #54

Total BS title. They are rejecting apps that mention other products in the metadata. If you submit an app that says 'also available on Android' the same thing will happen and it has been enforced for years. The rejection was very clear.

It's worse discussing though because mentioning Pebble has not been enforced for years, it only started to be enforced when Apple created a competitive product.

Which looks like evidence about the anti-competitive nature of Apple's actions.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#93
FWIW, we have an app that supports Pebble (mentioned in the app, on our website, but not in the iTunes description text) and we had an update approved today.

Though our last few two or three releases have also contained Apple Watch support (which is mentioned in the description text).

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#94
post #86
post #26

Flagged since this is complete non-news. Apple Watch is now an Apple product so it's now against the rules to mention Pebble in your app store description, a rule which has been around for a LONG time. EDIT: OK, OK. Unflagged since you apparently all really want to talk about this. :)

It's still a rule worth discussing. I hardly think this deserves to be flagged.

I can see the community disagrees with me, which is fine. It just gets very old to see so much uproar over an IMHO completely standard App Store rejection. The rule makes complete sense to me (they don't want you using their App Store to point to competitors), and nowhere is Apple saying apps are not allowed to support Pebble - Pebble itself has an app!

Now, if Apple decides to remove Pebble's own app from the store, that would be a reason for some justified uproar...

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#95
https://web.archive.org/web/20140214043815/https://itunes.ap...

Okay, so the appstore description has previously mentioned the Pebble version. So I can understand the developer being upset that he's only now getting rejected for it, but he shouldn't exactly be surprised that Apple is finally doing this.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#96
post #76

It's a bit tricky. I agree with most comments here that Apple is in the right to control what appear in the description and metadata. Not just from a competitive standpoint but in a way to make the it better for the user experience. That being said, in the Pebble case, I think it makes the user experience worst for the user. I.e. if I have a pebble watch and am looking for an iphone app that play well with it, I'd wa…

Under US law, it would be anti-competitive to use market control to stifle competition. I agree on your point about android, but you should be able to see what the software supports. Of course a court would need to decide, IANAL etc

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is a vile antitrust monstrosity. These jerks needed to be slammed with a lawsuit long before this one single example of their flamboyant and abundant anti-competitive behavior. While Apple are being increasingly huge dicks with their ecosystem I think you'd be hard-pressed with an antitrust case because Apple does not have a monopoly (or even a majority marketshare) on mobile devices.

They have a monopoly for the iOS platform, at least. And in some jurisdictions you don't need a monopoly to be guilty of anticompetitive behavior.

Do you have the same stance on Twitter? Twitter has a monopoly on the Twitter platform and may choose not to provide API keys for apps that it doesn't want to exist. Is this abusing a monopoly? If not, why not?

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vendor lock-in does count as monopolistic behaviour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in

Monopolistic behaviour != has a monopoly.

And having a monopoly isn't illegal. Monopolistic behavior is.

Re: Apple now rejecting apps with Pebble Smartwatch support

#100
post #34
post #18

The title is misleading at best. Apple does not care what support you have. They just don't want you to advertise that in their app store.

Yep. Same if you mention in your app that it's also available on Android. Fascist? Yes. Surprising? No. New? Certainly not.

There's a pretty big difference between "we also have a version of this app available for Android" and "this iOS app, right here, the one you're looking at and downloading, supports Pebble."

Apple saying you can't advertise other versions of your product is slightly dickish but totally understandable. Apple saying you can't advertise features of your iOS app because they happen to involve competing products is completely unreasonable.

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