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Nov. 25, 2009

Late yesterday, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior v.p. for global marketing defended the company's App Store controversial applicant approval process.

Schiller said that Apple's process is very much like any other retailer that pre-selects and chooses the actual products that will line their store shelves.

Schiller added that about 88 percent of Apple's App Store rejections from potential applicants are for some technical reasons, such as important details missing in the application.

He said that of those applications that are rejected, most were deemed inappropriate.

"Whatever your favorite retailer is, they care about the quality of the products they offer. We carefully review all applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them," Schiller was quoted as saying.

Schiller also said that security, trademark infringement and providing suitable content for children all factor in the approval or rejection process of an application.

Apple has had a few inquires from governments and political leaders asking what it was doing to protect children from inappropriate content.

Apple has taken a lot of criticism for its handling of the approval process for iPhone apps. It was perhaps Apple's purported rejection of the Google Voice App, and subsequent inquiry from the FCC, that brought the criticism to new heights.

Most recently, Facebook's lead iPhone developer, Joe Hewitt simply quit, saying that he was philosophically opposed to the way Apple handled the vetting of apps at the App Store.

Inappropriate or not, I guess it will take a few weeks until we see the dust settle on this.

One thing is sure: the Mobile Apps segment of the industry is growing at a very fast and furious pace, and Apple wants to make sure that its Apps Stores are the best in terms of quality, security and usefullness for its many users.

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Source: Apple.