Apple doesn’t have the best record when it comes to knockoff iOS apps. The App Store is filled with clones of popular apps like Clear and Temple Run. This obviously looks bad on Apple’s part, hurts developers’ profits and grinds the gears of the average consumer, who drops $0.99 on a clone. However, according to Benjamin Mayo, Apple seems to be changing their policy on app clones.
On his blog, Benjamin posted an email that was sent by Apple to another developer regarding an app submission rejection. It reads:
We found that your app, and/or its metadata, contains content that could be misleading to users, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. Specifically, your app icon appears to be similar to the chart topping lists/to do app “Clear.” It would be appropriate to modify your app icon so that they don’t appear to be similar.
Benjamin is also a developer, so he has made it clear that this email was not sent to him. The email was sent to a developer who appears to be making a clone of the app Clear, a popular to-do application.
So, it looks as if the attack of the clones is over, right? Frankly, it’s about time.
Source: Benjamin Mayo via The Next Web
