Apple censors a dictionary

Are cool apps potentially being kept out of the Apple Store?

Yes

If that's so, that should be the bigger issue.

Indeed, and it is (part of) the bigger issue. This thread is just about the latest incarnation of the problem.

Apple's behaviour with app validation is indefensible to anyone who has been paying attention to it. It's been indefensible for months/years and we keep getting more examples of it (and then people treating them as isolated incidents).

If it was just NinjaWords, or just Google Voice, or just the photo-taking apps or just the NIN app, the e-books app, the Shacknews Chatty app, the... the list goes on and on and the reasons for blocking the apps are inconsistent (between versions of the same app let alone between competing apps), opaque, anti-competitive and stupid.

("Oh no something can view a webpage, there might be bad content on it so we'd better ban that app, but we don't ban the built-in browser that can view the exact same content!" ...And being able to literally block stuff for competing with built-in apps, present or future... that's ridiculous.)

Not to mention the awful process takes weeks while you sit in limbo wondering if your time/effort/money developing the thing will be wasted and wondering when/if you'll be able to offer a service or update to your customers.

In the early days the standard excuse for the process was that it would lead to quality control and the benefit that people wouldn't have to wade through hundreds of rubbish apps in order to find the good ones. Well that turned out to be a complete fantasy. What's the excuse now? There isn't one. It's just Apple being anti-competitive, lock-down, control-freak c**ts as usual and they're being defended for it as usual, even by some of the app developers affected. The RDF is strong!

As far as I can tell -- and part of the overall problem is that Apple are often extremely vague about the reason for rejecting an app or an app update --it was rejected because it competed with built-in functionality of the device and/or because it may have annoyed AT&T by undercutting them or helping a service which competes with them.

Wikipedia states: "Apple Inc. states that the reason for the rejection and removals is that these apps duplicate certain iPhone functions and features." The article they cite for that comment doesn't seem to say that outright at all, though.

Here's a statement from the developer of an earlier/alternative (non-Google-developed) Google Voice iPhone app:

Richard Chipman from Apple just called - he told me they’re removing GV Mobile from the App Store due to it duplicating features that the iPhone comes with (Dialer, SMS, etc). He didn’t actually specify which features, although I assume the whole app in general. He wouldn’t send a confirmation email either - too scared I would post it.

Whatever the law, is it really in the end-users' best interests to block apps which offer alternative/improved versions of built-in features? Surely not. Apple are being customer-hostile with those judgements.

I don't know. Application of anti-trust law seems quite arbitrary to me.

Why does the EU fine Microsoft for Internet Explorer with Windows and not Apple with it's AppStore? At least on Windows you get to install whatever you want.

Part of the reason is because Microsoft have a monpoly in the OS market while Apple don't have a monopoly in the smartphone market.

However, that doesn't explain why very few states have taken action against Apple in the markets of portable audio-players and online music stores where they have/had monopolies with similar market shares to Windows and where they have most definitely abused those monopolies in (IMO) worse ways than anything Microsoft ever did with Internet Explorer.