App disqualified from App Store because it 'duplicates iTunes functionality' (updated)

You do know what happens if a developer leaves the app store program....

Apple removes the app, and then turns on the KILL SWITCH to remove the app.

Frasier Speirs is being a baby about this, not to mention that there are a bunch of programs out there that have much better features of exposure. Don't think he will be missed much

Some of the mindless excuses/apologism for this action by Apple takes the biscuit in ignorance, even if Apple will one day release a similar feature, why should that mean that no one else is allowed to jump the gun, is Apple scared of competition?

And the ridiculous excuse about bandwidth, has anyone bothered to find out whether it did update over 3G/Edge, and if that was the reason, that it did (which would be mildy acceptable - but again what an apologist dreams up, is not what Apple said!), it would not be a big deal for the developer to make it work only over Wifi.

This would be a great app for Podcast listeners period.

Today is another sad day for TUAW. Exactly what are you trying to do here, Robert Palmer?

How DARE YOU blog something so Anti-Apple on TUAW...that "A" is for APPLE, right?

Apple rejects apps *every day* man. If you are making a game, or a toy, or something fairly trivial and selling it for a buck, you won't have ANY problems at all.

Apple has set the tone for the kinds of apps they want sold...which is "whatever the hell we say. Just don't get too fancy, a'ight?"

The fact that devs building these apps won't ever make a dime off them and have NO WARNING or GUIDANCE is not relevant. The fact that the process is arbitrary, anticompetive and Microstian in nature makes no difference whatsoever.

The only thing that matters is lining Apple's Multinational Multibillion Dollar corporate pockets with our money and making THEM happy...because everyone with a Mac, an iPhone and a me.com email address *is* a part of Apple, so if they say "no" to a feature, app or piece of functionality that their marketing execs haven't figured out a way to get a nice $pin on, THEN IT IS BAD, alright?

Just *mentioning* that this smells of anything but sweet tea and honeysuckle is a smack in the face. Your head should be on a pike, right next to Sadun's for this piece of crap.

Next thing you know, you'll be whining about how 3rd Party Developers are "unhappy" because they aren't getting a slice of that fat money Appstore cake because they refuse to write something other than a ToDo list app and sell it for a dollar!

Jesus Robert. The.Unofficial.APPLE.Weblog. No one cares about anyone or anything but Apple and what they say is good for us, and them...because we ARE them.

Get with the program.

I've made a Slashdot submission about this, and John Siracusa's recommendation that iPhone devs boycott the Apple Design Awards. Read it, and vote it up if you like it:

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=1166877

I understand where you're coming from but the problem, as I see it, is that itunes (on the ipod) does not allow you to download podcasts from the itunes store. If it did then apple would have a point, but since the itunes application on the ipod doesn't have the podcast functionality the app in question isn't duplicating anything.

For Apple to stifle competition is unforgiveable. What is worse (from the customer's point of view) is that Podcaster in fact adds functionality that is not built into the iPhone. Direct downloading of podcasts to the iPhone would be a great addition to the iPhone's feature set. What in the world is Apple thinking when they prevent developers from offering useful functionality that is otherwise missing from the iPhone?

What we need here is an iPhone users' revolt. Can someone suggest the most effective way for unhappy iPhone customers to voice their objections to Apple?

It would be really great if OS X worked the same way, and Apple would prohibit apps that duplicated existing Apple software...

But the bottom line is that this would be a useful app for many people, does not circumvent the iTunes Music Store in any way (in terms of stealing revenue from Apple.)

I would actually pay for this app, and I think others would too.

I don't care what ominous ramifications Apple can drum up here. It's a podcast app. You can download and listen to podcasts via wifi, which you can't do now. It extends the functionality of the iPod Touch and iPhone for avid podcast listeners.

I would venture to agree with Bud, Apple is probably going to build this into a future update, and this may be competing with future iTunes functionality. I'm not sure how I would word that rejection better if that is the case....