Apple relaxed all restrictions on development tools

Back in April, we did some three apps on Rhomobile Rhodes and submitted to App Store for approval. Though we had success before with App Store approvals, this time we heard nothing from Apple. Even follow ups were resulting in useless "we will get back to you" answers. Then we heard this bombshell from Apple. They announced that they will block non Objective-C based apps. They said quality is more important and gave their opinion that non Objective-C apps can't be built with quality. It was clear that they are aiming at Adobe and blocking their Flash-to-iPhone-app tool but the collateral damage was done to Rhomobile Rhodes and PhoneGap and Appcelerator Titanium and perhaps a few smaller solutions.

A few weeks later, our apps were silently approved though no official word yet on reversal of the policy. Apple then officially announced that all restrictions on development tools are removed. Here is the statement in full:

Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines

The App Store℠ has revolutionized the way mobile applications are developed and distributed. With over 250,000 apps and 6.5 billion downloads, the App Store has become the world’s largest mobile application platform and App Store developers have earned over one billion dollars from the sales of their apps.

We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.

The App Store is perhaps the most important milestone in the history of mobile software. Working together with our developers, we will continue to surprise and delight our users with innovative mobile apps.

Apple realized that with Android so close behind, these kind of restrictions were hurting them and reversed it after so boldly stating that they are fine with getting less apps due to this.

Having realized their mistake Apple went the extra mile to call the Rhomobile guys to tell them about the change of policy.

Rhodes is a fantastic tool, one can build great quality apps with it. We have a number apps built with it and going to add a lot more soon. Being Ruby on Rails fans, we are just at ease with Rhodes as we are on the web app world and you too should enjoy writing apps with it. Strongly recommended.