Apple has stood firm in its decision to terminate the Apple Developer Account of Appstun, a mobile app company founded by one of Apple’s own Worldwide Developer Conference 2021 student winners. The termination came after Apple repeatedly rejected the app developed by Appstun, citing violations of its App Store guidelines as the reason.
The termination of the developer’s account by Apple was recently highlighted on X by Apple critic David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-owner and CTO of 37Signals. He emphasized the advantages that web developers have in running businesses without relying on big tech gatekeepers.
Appstun co-founder Batuhan Karababa expressed that they had been working with Apple to address the rejections of their app. However, despite their efforts to resolve issues transparently, Apple continued to reject their submissions, leading to the termination of their developer account.
The dispute stemmed from Appstun’s app for designing Apple Watch faces, which included custom images and animations. Apple raised concerns about the functionality and potential battery drain caused by the custom animations. They also felt that customers might be misled into thinking they were using a standard watch face.
Despite adding notifications to clarify the nature of their app, Apple proceeded with the termination of Appstun’s developer account due to ongoing disagreements.
Apple defended its decision by pointing to guideline 5.6, emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct and warning against manipulative or misleading behavior by developers.
App Store scams have been a longstanding issue, with developers like Kosta Eleftheriou highlighting fraudulent apps that deceive users. Regulatory scrutiny on Apple’s app review process may push the tech company to be more vigilant in identifying and addressing fraudulent apps on the platform.
