Here's a good one I was told about a Twitter client I developed: "The links in the tweets just open up a webview when you press them..." - It was rejected on this basis, and this was the appeal board telling me this... :(
I agree that application titles should be unique. I'm surprised that's not the case as it makes sense and is easily enforced.
> the straw that broke the camels back was when another dev released two apps with the same name as my apps whilst they were in the Top 5… Apple did nothing about it.
If someone can compete with your product with little effort, then how good was your product in the first place? If their product is not as good and yours already sits front and center in the top 5, who cares if carbon copies exist? If theirs is better, then be glad you made it to the top 5 first.
Ummm... The strict uniqueness of app names IS enforced by Apple, unless you're saying that "Color!" and "Color+" are the same app name. How would you expect Apple to enforce such a policy, anyway? Is "Sky Cloud" the 'same' as 'My Cloud'? Who should make such arbitrary decisions?
As far as "Apple doing nothing about it"... Why does this even matter? If your app is in the top 5, being viewed by thousands of people who presumably then click on it, why would you think that a similarly named app that is not in the top 5 receive any attention? If the developer of the other app was able to make money piggybacking on your sales, I'd love to see your sales chart clearly demonstrating this effect, and I'm sure Apple would as well. They're out to make money, too.
The problem isn't that he can't compete, it's that his potential customers can't tell which one he is! They hear from their friends that 'xyz app' is awesome, they search the market and find 2 of them... And 50% download the wrong one!
Of course, ratings and that top-5 spot should help shift that percentage in his favor, but it's still really ugly that it's even possible for people to do that.
Correct. It's not the quality of the competing app, or it's closeness to my functionality. It's the consumer confusion, and the blatant piggy backing off of others success which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm more surprised Apple doesn't deal with it.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 22.0 ms ] thread> the straw that broke the camels back was when another dev released two apps with the same name as my apps whilst they were in the Top 5… Apple did nothing about it.
If someone can compete with your product with little effort, then how good was your product in the first place? If their product is not as good and yours already sits front and center in the top 5, who cares if carbon copies exist? If theirs is better, then be glad you made it to the top 5 first.
As far as "Apple doing nothing about it"... Why does this even matter? If your app is in the top 5, being viewed by thousands of people who presumably then click on it, why would you think that a similarly named app that is not in the top 5 receive any attention? If the developer of the other app was able to make money piggybacking on your sales, I'd love to see your sales chart clearly demonstrating this effect, and I'm sure Apple would as well. They're out to make money, too.
Of course, ratings and that top-5 spot should help shift that percentage in his favor, but it's still really ugly that it's even possible for people to do that.