Apple iPhone app rule-change sparks further charity outrage

IT | Gareth Jones | 26 Feb 2010

Bullying UK chief executive John Carnell has renewed his criticism of Apple, as the firm further tightens its criteria for accepting iPhone apps.

Carnell revealed this week that version three of Bullying UK’s app has been rejected as, according to app creation site AppMakr, Apple now requires “sufficient amounts of content to appeal to a broad audience”.

AppMakr suggests that, for businesses, rather than having an app solely for content created by that organisation such as blogs or Twitter feeds, they should complement it with external feeds providing industry news.

But Carnell says this is unacceptable for charities. “BullyingUK will not be publishing under these new rules any more apps to the app store.

“For us it's a matter of user protection; we cannot include feeds or content in our apps that we do not have direct control over and the same will be true for every charity / non-profit I would of thought.

“This is just another example of Apple making changes without considering who it impacts.”

He suggests the creation of a dedicated non-profit section of the App Store with lighter regulation, and says that developers are likely to turn to Google’s rival mobile platform Android as an alternative.

Earlier this month Carnell launched a campaign to overturn Apple’s ban on ‘donate’ buttons in apps.

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