Apple accused of appropriating rejected 'Wi-Fi Sync' app
Developer Greg Hughes, who is also a student at the University of Birmingham, created the "Wi-Fi Sync" app last year and submitted it to Apple's App Store. But, the app was rejected by Apple.
An Apple representative contacted Hughes to explain the rejection, saying the app didn't "technically break the rules," though it did "encroach upon the boundaries" of what is allowed in the App Store. Hughes turned instead to the Cydia store for "jailbroken" devices and has since sold over 50,000 copies of the app.
After Apple previewed iOS 5's new Wi-Fi Sync feature, complete with a similar logo, on Monday Hughes was "completely shocked," The Telegraph reports. Apple's take on Wi-Fi syncing will automatically sync and back up an iOS 5 device to iTunes over a Wi-Fi connection whenever the device is connected to a power source.
"I'd been selling my app with that name and icon for a year. Apple knew about it as I'd submitted it to them, so it was surprising to see that they had pinched it for iOS 5,â he said.
Developer Greg Hughes; Wi-Fi Sync app logo (top), Apple Wi-Fi Sync logo (bottom) | Source: The Telegraph
Hughes said he has gotten legal advice and plans to "stand up and defend" his work. According to him, the App Store representative he spoke with last year told him that the iPhone engineering team had seen his app and "were quite impressed."
Smaller developers have faced similar situations in the past as Apple has progressively added features, such as the iBooks app and App Store recommendations, to iOS. The issue will likely be as the iOS developer ecosystem continues to grow.
Apple revealed this week that there are now 425,000 apps on the App Store, with more than $2.5 billion paid to developers. Over 200 million iOS devices have been sold, giving Apple 50 percent of the market.
201 Comments
I'm not sure about the icon part of the claim. Apple has been using the "two arrows" symbol for sync for years, iSync icon has it and was released in 2003. They have also had the "signal wave" symbol for WiFi in the OS X menu bar for years. And the icon is question is just a composite of those two things.
I was just reading about this at Cult of Mac and according to their post the developer was asked for a resume. Wonder why he didn't hand one in and instead went to Cydia. You'd think that an Apple representative asking for your resume after Apple just rejected your app would clue you in.
I was just reading about this at Cult of Mac and according to their post the developer was asked for a resume. Wonder why he didn't hand one in and instead went to Cydia. You'd think that an Apple representative asking for your resume after Apple just rejected your app would clue you in.
While a job at Apple may interest a great number of people, it was well within his rights to not want to work there. Declining a job does not mean it's OK for him to get ripped off.
That said, I strongly suspect Apple did have this functionality in its long term plans. The longer I follow Apple the longer-term I realize their secret roadmaps are. So I'm not sure there's a case here. Countless other times 3rd party developers of both Apple and Microsoft OS's have found their add-ons getting implemented in the next versions out of Redmond and Cupertino. And odds are very good Apple will have planning documents to prove this function was on the drawing board before Hughes' app was submitted to the store.
I was just reading about this at Cult of Mac and according to their post the developer was asked for a resume. Wonder why he didn't hand one in and instead went to Cydia. You'd think that an Apple representative asking for your resume after Apple just rejected your app would clue you in.
Stupid developer! Why did he think he could get away from the Borg? He should have submitted his resume and been assimilated.
The software you install on your PC causes iTunes not to be able to update or restore your idevice. Throws up error 1611. Took me 2 days to figure it. That's probably why it was rejected?