In an effort to get his banned app returned to the App Store, AppGratis CEO Simon Dawlat today posted an online petition at save.appgratis.com, asking AppGratis users to send an email to express support for the app.
In an official statement to the Wall Street Journal on april the 8th, Apple said we violated two of its iOS Guidelines.
But we know we haven't.
And we have written our side of the story here.
Today we believe it's you, Apple's customers, who should have the final word.
Today, you can speak up.
Tell Apple that you think different.
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Dawlat has made several efforts to reach out to Apple, beginning with a blog post asking for the Cupertino-based company to contact him. Last week, AllThingsD revealed that the removal was both permanent and the first phase of a more expansive crackdown on app discover services.
AppGratis, which earns money by charging developers to feature apps, has been accused of not being on the up and up. 148Apps accused AppGratis of selling top 10 placement, and Conor O'Connor, CEO of hotel app Hot.co.uk accused AppGratis of using bots to artificially inflate download numbers.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Dawlat reiterated that AppGratis has not used shady tactics to game the App Store.
We're in in the business of helping the end users discover new apps, and to serve this mission, we're playing the long run. We're building a community. We've never been in the business of gaming the top charts or anything. This is a very strong statement from us.
AppGratis has thus far received more than 620,008 emails of support and more than 20,000 tweets.
Update: Conor O'Connor, CEO of Hot.co.uk, has retracted his original statement and issued an apology to AppGratis for his accusations.
Top Rated Comments
For me, the problem with AppGratis is that it's a paid promo service. It's not as if they're handpicking quality apps and highlighting them. They let app makers pay to be featured and that's gaming the app store charts.
If that is true, then yes, AppGratis deserves to be banned. But it's no secret Apple doesn't want these kinds of apps anywayAppShopper is no longer on the App Store, and it doesn't do any gaming of the charts.
Apple should make these kinds of apps irrelevant by making app discovery not suck, not by banning them.
I'm sure I'm not of the popular opinion.. but thats how I feel.
Edit: also if you want to do this still make a damn web app. They can't keep that from showing on their device.
If that is true, then yes, AppGratis deserves to be banned. But it's no secret Apple doesn't want these kinds of apps anywayAppShopper is no longer on the App Store, and it doesn't do any gaming of the charts.
Apple should make these kinds of apps irrelevant by making app discovery not suck, not by banning them.
I agree 110%, that couldn't have been said any better.
Look, as a developer you knew the rules for the platform you were using. You violated them, you got caught and you were told you couldn't play. Way I see it you can either fix the app to resolve the issue and play on iOS again or don't. Whining however is lame in the end since you agreed to the terms app submission. Seems like a silly effort that will only taint your reputation as you were the one who did not follow the rules. Just saying, deal with the issue and get back to selling man!