Schiller Defends App Store Approval Process

In an interview with Business Week, Phil Schiller the Apple senior vice-president explains Apple's handling of App Store approvals.

A common complaint about the App Store is Apple's roll as a gatekeeper in which the company decides what gets okayed and what doesn't.

Schiller addresses this saying, "We've built a store for the most part that people can trust... You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you'd expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works."


"Whatever your favorite retailer is, of course they care about the quality of products they offer," he says. "We review the applications to make sure they work as the customers expect them to work when they download them."

Schiller notes that about 90% of application rejects are due to bugs in the software. 10% of app rejections are due to inappropriate content. "There have been applications submitted for approval that will steal personal data, or which are intended to help the user break the law, or which contain inappropriate content." Clearly these apps don't make that cut. About 1% of apps fall into a gray area such as helping a user cheat at the casino. "We had to go study state and international laws about what's legal and what isn't, and what legal exposure that creates for Apple or the customer." In this example, apps that help a user learn how to play are okay. Those that help a person cheat don't make the cut.

Apple is particularly concerned about the illegal use of trademarks, especially its own. "If you don't defend your trademarks, in the end you end up not owning them," Schiller says. "And sometimes other companies come to us saying they've seen their trademarks used in apps without permission. We see that a lot."

Many developers have criticized Apple's overly aggressive trademark defense and rejection of apps that contain images of, or image references to, any Apple product.


Recently Rogue Amoeba had its Airfoil Speakers app rejected for showing an image of the device it was transmitting audio from.

Schiller didn't directly address Airfoil Speakers but said, "We need to delineate something that might confuse the customer and be an inappropriate use of a trademark from something that's just referring to a product for the sake of compatibility. We're trying to learn and expand the rules to make it fair for everyone."

Schiller indicates that parental controls are playing an important part in the improvement of the App Store. "We've had a lot of eyes on us. We've had inquiries from governments and political leaders asking us what we were doing to protect children from inappropriate content," he says.

Business Week notes that mobile applications are a relatively recent phenomenon and suggests that there may come a time when Apple finds it no longer needs to play such a comprehensive a role as app approver.

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