ARTICLE NO. 552 September 09, 2010

Apple (finally) releases its App Store Review Guidelines

by Jonathan Anderson | UX Magazine

Apple has finally publicly (well, semi-publicly) released a detailed account of its "App Store Review Guidelines." It comes complete with an apologia, too:

Lastly, we love this stuff too, and honor what you do. We're really trying our best to create the best platform in the world for you to express your talents and make a living too. If it sounds like we're control freaks, well, maybe it's because we're so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are too.

Almost all. In a separate press release, they also say:

[W]e are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

It's too early to tell what this might mean for Flash on the iPhone and iPad.

You can view the guidelines in the Apple Developer Center if you've got access, otherwise there are some sites that are making it available as a PDF, and it's also on Scribd.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Jonathan Anderson

Jonathan (@first_day) is a tech-focused jack of all trades and the editor-in-chief of UX Magazine. He is also the author of Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software, published by O'Reilly Media. Through its partnership with UX Magazine, Jonathan is also a senior advisor to Didus, a recruiting and career development company focused on user-centered professionals. As well, Jonathan is Managing Director, Product Strategy & Design for Dapperly, a fashion-oriented software product startup, and he is the Principal of First Day, a small private equity and consulting company. From 2005 to 2009, Jonathan helped found EffectiveUI, a leading UX strategy, design, and development agency focused on web, desktop, and mobile systems.