Apple seems to be on a roll here.
This morning I read that apple is rejecting apps that have the word "pad" in them.
Clearly Apple does not own the trademark on the word "pad", certainly not as part of another word whether a real word like "notepad" or as a made up word like "contactPad", which is the name of the app they rejected. So their backdoor strategy is to use the App Store rejection process as a tool for enforcing non-existent trademark rights. This seems to me to be another blatant example of restraint of trade, similar to what I discuss about their new rules requiring apps to be written in C.
Amusingly, many years ago I ran a company that made a PIM for the Mac called DayMaker. When the Newton MessagePad came out, we were working on a contact manager, which we never ended up launching, called ContactPad. Apple was going to distribute the software, and had no problem with the "pad" in the name. But obviously times have changed.
Before I submitted our app with the name "Print to iPad", I checked the app store for apps with "iPhone" in the name (there were no iPad apps at that point.) There were lots of them, and iPhone is a trademark, so I assumed putting iPad in the name would be OK. Nope. (We ended up with the cooler, though less descriptive "iPrinter")
ReplyDeleteBut rejecting anything with "pad" in the name? They seem to be going out of their way to prevent easy searching for iPad-only apps in the store. (The de-facto "HD" - next on the chopping block?)
Remember, the AppStore is a store, not a bazaar. BestBuy can choose to not stock products with "Best" or "Buy" in the name. WalMart can choose not to sell music with explicit lyrics . Music artists don't get to decide what is appropriate for Walmart; application writers don't get to decide what is appropriate for the AppStore.
ReplyDeleteDoes seem a little OTT (ok, very OTT) but, as John says, it's a store and they can set the rules for inclusion. If you don't like the rules don't expect to have your product stocked. Unfortunately i would guess most people's reation will be to toe the line as missing out on revenue from app sales is more damaging than coming up with a name that doesn't have pad in the title
ReplyDeleteyour blogspam is shit
ReplyDeleteJohn:
ReplyDeleteBut your forgetting that anywhere else I have choice. If I don't like the music that wal-mart sells, as a consumer I can go somewhere else and buy the music I want. Not so with Apple.
Not only doesn't Apple own the trademark on the word "pad"...they don't even own ipad.com.
ReplyDeleteThoughts?
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Brie
Good analogy Brie
ReplyDeleteMaybe Apple won't have to worry so much when the Windows tablets come out, are formatted over and have Ubuntu Linux, the easiest Linux to install for normal people! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ubuntu.com/
I tried them and they have a live add/remove programs, one click and it installs from the Internet for you, EASILY (easier then Windows 7 installs for sure)
So don't worry, eventually Ubunutu will allow paid aps on THEIR Operating System and I'll put my money in there.
When their free ap section has SNES emulators, you KNOW they are on the side of the users! (they allow 3rd party people to distribute awesomeness on their free ap installer)
Free SCV