14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been more than a week since Apple pulled AppGratis from iTunes, and there still is a lot of confusion regarding the conversations between the two companies.
The answer in short is that there haven’t been any real discussions, according to the chief executive officer of AppGratis.
“It is important to me and my team that we clarify what happened,” says CEO Simon Dawlat.
“It is absolutely untrue that there were discussions between AppGratis and Apple in advance of our app being removed from Apple's platform. The first communication from Apple we received was an email sent to us after our app had been removed.”
Dawlat continues, saying, “Since our app was removed, we have had one telephone conversation with an Apple employee who repeated the content of Apple's email to us, and refused to discuss the matter further.”
The CEO reveals that, since that formal conversation, “Apple has not returned any of our calls.”
“It goes without saying that I am still very keen to speak to them,” says Dawlat.
AppGratis is an application discovery service which, according to Apple, goes against at least two clauses stipulated in the App Store guidelines.
There are still a few titles in the iTunes App Store that do what AppGratis did, but Apple has yet to pull those too.
According to a report by AllThingsD this week, the removal of AppGratis is just the beginning of a broader initiative which will eventually see all these apps removed for failing to comply with the iTunes App Store regulations.
One example is Daily Free Apps, an app discovery service that notifies users of daily deals, such as paid apps gone free.
And while Apple may see this service as bad for business, the people who actually use these services have a different opinion.
Here’s just one relevant comment from the numerous Daily Free Apps users:
“Amazing!!! Best app. To be honest finds all the best apps. App Store is filled with too many choices. This app makes it easy. Brilliant design. Clean layout. Enjoy this app very much.”