Twitter application gets rejected from App Store

Update (6:06am March 11, 2009): Apple has relented and will let the app into the app store.  A little press never hurts!

Apple is obviously a little thin in the App Store selection personnel these days.  Perhaps they didn't plan for the overwhelming amount of app "applications" that have piled up over the past months.  How big is this little App Store?  Many think it will be a $1 billion/year business, if it isn't already.  Apple might want to spend a little more money to get some more quality people working in the process.

It looks like Apple is failing at keeping up with the incredible demand for applications to be processed. Issues are popping up daily and both developers and consumers are getting upset.

Some app developers are just walking away from the platform. Others are having their contracts expire and are working without legal agreements with Apple.  The glut of flatulence apps, the Make Me Rich App, Podcaster, browsers, Google having to wait and then learning they got special access to API's are all casting a shadow on an otherwise sunny App Store experience.

Another silly mistake emerged this week when, according to iLounge, Apple  rejected version 1.3 of Tweetie.  The reason?  Profanity.  Apple in its denial said: 

"Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive, or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod Touch users."

There isn't profanity in the app, it just aggregates Twitter feeds, which as we all know, are sometimes PG-13 and worse.  If there is some foul language in a trend, of course Tweetie will pick it up, profane or not.

(Woops!)

So, is Apple suggesting that apps sensor web content for profanity?  Should Apple disable profanity in Safari or Mobile Mail?

No, of course not.  If they did, I'd never get any email from my boss!

This seemingly obvious blunder obviously slipped by an overworked/under-trained employee who wasn't using logic.  It wasn't double-checked either.

The problem is that Tweet has to go to the back of the growing line, resubmit and wait for Apple to accept them again. There has to be an easier way?