Lessons learned - iPhone Review

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When you submit an App to the Apple App Store it has to go through a "rigorous quality check", conducted by Apple. Although there are plenty of resources out there, here's a short rundown of what we've learned ourselves so far:

• Marketing Apps are not allowed

If the sole purpose of your App is marketing, you'll have a hard time getting your App through. You need to add what Apple calls "user functionality". That could be something simple like a photo gallery or a feature to reserve a room or table.


• You cannot tease your users with features that they have to pay for

If you are offering a lite version of your App, you cannot add disabled functionality, which would be enabled in the paid version. A lite version usually is offered separately from a paid version, which means the user will constantly see disabled menu items or buttons, since the App will never be updated. Instead add a info section about the paid version in your App, which describes what the paid version offers.


• Don't ask your users to upgrade

You cannot add an alert in a free/lite version of your App, which asks users to upgrade or buy the paid version. Instead you should add a "buy me" button or a section in your App further describing what your paid version offers.


• Build a working App

You are definitely rejected if your App is buggy! If the reviewer thinks he found a bug, he'll reject your App. A crash is the worst case scenario, but it happens. However, don't depend on Apple as your QA, because the review times are too long to go back and forth this way.


• Don't infringe Trademarks or Copyrights

Don't mention Apple, Android or any other Trademark therefore - as long as you don't own it. You should also resist to use iPhone like icons or images.

If you respect all of these restrictions and gotchas, you should be save to get your App through the review process. I say "should", because it all appears to depend on the person who reviews your App. Let us know what you experienced, submitting your Apps, I bet there are a lot more of these gotchas.