Imagine spending a ton of time and resources creating an app celebrating the life of your idol only to be denied from the App Store because they don’t agree to honoring him in that way. That’s what happened to Nuskha Labs and their Steve Jobs Timeline app.
Here’s what Apple actually said:
Thank you for submitting your app commemorating Steve Jobs. We appreciate your efforts honoring Steve. However, we’ve decided to honor his life in other ways and we are no longer accepting Steve Jobs apps.
Steve Jobs Timeline documents the life of Apple’s co-founder with pictures and famous quotes. The user interface is pleasant and resembles a sun setting over the horizon. It pinpoints 23 key moments in Jobs’ life, including Apple Going Public, the Birth of iTunes and his Medical Leave.
Apparently, Nuskha Labs was expecting its app to be turned away. Nonetheless, they explain their reason for creating the app in the first place on their website:
Steve Jobs has been a long time inspiration to us. We started thinking how best we can give tribute to Steve’s life and work. We set out to create an iPad App (Steve Jobs Timeline) which captures most important events of Steve’s life, work and entrepreneur journey. We challenged our limits and created something very unique and amazing. Hope you would love the application as much we love.
There’s been different feedback on this around the web. App Advice says it’s understandable that Apple would want to keep hold of Jobs’ image and make sure it isn’t altered in any way. On the flip side, Cult of Mac takes the stance that they “may have chosen to honour Jobs’s life in other ways, but why should that prevent others from honouring him in their way?”
Here’s my question. Is this a common place practice for all commemorative style apps honoring those who have passed away? Or is this Apple bringing down the gavel just because they can? What does that mean for apps like “Celebrity Death of the Day”? Will they have to remove Steve Jobs from their app?
I’d love to know your thoughts on this. Tweet me.
