Yet another iPhone application has been denied from the App Store this week, and yet again the reason is quoted as “duplicating functionality” of an already available iPhone application. In this case, the application in reference is Apple’s own Mail.app on the iPhone. MailWrangler gives a way to easily use multiple GMail accounts simultaneously. Something that you can not do in Safari on the iPhone, as you would have to continuously log in and out of GMail. And why even use the web version of GMail and not use Apple’s own Mail? Access to Contacts, threading and other features that aren’t available. That by definition suggests that the developer isn’t “duplicating” functionality.

The reasoning behind these denials is seemingly more frequently described as duplicating functionality. However, as Macworld points out, Apple seems to have no problem admitting applications that do duplicate most functionality, or even admitting applications by the same name.

… Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. …

As Dan from Macworld points out, Apple owns the App Store and has the right to admit or deny admittance to anyone. However, it would be wise to apply those rules equally and so far it seems safe to say that Apple is not doing so. Let’s hope this changes, or I sincerely believe that the iPhone platform will suffer greatly as developers lose confidence in building great applications for a device that they might never be able to sell it to.

Read complete article on MailWranger denial from Macworld

Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster fame wrote up a lengthy proposal of ways to fix the App Store and the approval process. Mostly Wil discusses the fact that Apple is having to come up with ad-hoc solutions on the fly and needs to set down and fix the real problems (such as allowing a user to buy a 1000 dollar app without a confirmation click) before resorting to censorship. Overall, a very interesting read.