Hey everyone, Has anyone else run into this rejection from Apple before? If so, how did you overcome it? ===== Section 1.2: “You” and “Your” means and refers to the person(s) or legal entity (whether the company, organization, educational institution, or governmental agency, instrumentality, or department) using the Apple Software or otherwise exercising rights under this Agreement. For the sake of clarity, You may authorize contractors to develop Applications on Your behalf, but any such Applications must be submitted under Your developer account. If you have published these apps on behalf of a client, it would be appropriate for your client to enroll in the iOS Developer Program, then add you to their development team so you can develop an app for them to submit under their developer account. ===== Absolutely unbelievable to me that they would suggest that I need to have all of my clients set up developer accounts. As if it isn't hard enough just finding clients willing to pay for app development! Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. I've responded to Apple on this with a list of examples of other companies that are developing apps for clients. By the way, I had TWO apps rejected today for this same reason. Unbelievable.

Would be VERY interested in any insight/answer about this as well.

That seems like pure greed on apple's part. I notice they say ''it would be appropriate'' rather than ''it is a requirement'' perhaps they're trying it on, as they'll probably get a number of developers who wouldn't think to appeal it? Very good luck with it.

That's crazy! Let us know what happens.

Does the app have any language pointing out that it's the clients app? With out letting me know to much info, what kind of app is it?

There are two. One is for a winery client of mine and the other is for a political candidate client. It's pretty interesting because I did a quick check of the app store and found a ton of examples of both kinds of apps that were built and distributed under a developer account, not under the clients account. It will be interesting to see what Apple has to say in their follow up. At this point, I do not have a specific page in either app saying that the app is the clients. The copyright is under my company, which is similar to all of the other apps I looked up. We'll see. Very frustrating.

Very frustrating. I have been waiting for 4 days now for my one app to be reviewed. Google's process is much smoother. Good luck with the situation. Keep us informed. :)

Do you have a personal developer account or company developer account. could that be the difference i wonder?

This is a new one for sure! I guess this means that Apple doesn't want anyone to make applications professionally? Seems very unlikely. Imagine if ALL the software in their store were created by NON-PROGRAMMERS. Um...don't get it. However, I do get this: Apple has a very VERY tough time with firms that develop apps for folks in volume. Take buzztouch for example...we could literally submit tens of thousands of apps for approval on behalf of our users. I'm guessing we could ask a few bucks for the service too ;-) However, we totally understand Apple's position on this and totally understand how canned, cookie cutter apps are good for nobody. buzztouch v1.4 is very limited in this regard, they all look very very similliar. Not good. We knew that would happen but also needed to get something working early on this process. Enough of that tangent...v1.5 solves this problem. And, it's this exact reason we don't provide 'templates' or 'canned' approaches in v1.5. It would also be very easy for us to provide dozens (if not hundreds) of tempate-driven packages. We also think that folks would pay for such a service. But, we also KNOW that long term this is a bad approach for several reasons. We feel very strongly that this isn't a good idea and do not plan to provide any canned packages to make this 'easier.' Quality is oftentimes not easy, that's the way it goes sometimes. We can help make take the programming out of the equation but dont' want to take the design part out of the equation. Unique design are very important. We want users to create their own apps, not canned apps and starting from an 'empty' app is the best way to ensure their uniqueness. Blah, blah, I could talk about this for hours. So, the important question: I wonder if the 125 'app maker' services online today are in for a surprise when they get a notice from Apple that all their SUBMITTED apps will be rejected? Sounds scary for them I guess? Don't have any other advise other than what you already did, questioned their decision.

@mysps - I have two developer accounts. One for my corporation and one personal. I submitted both apps under the corporation. If I don't get anywhere with the appeal, I'll resubmit under my personal account and see where that goes. Thing is, I had an app for a client approved by Apple less than two weeks ago. Just goes to show you that their reviewers are inconsistent.

@David - totally understand and agree. As a designer by trade, I have made sure my apps are completely different and don't appear to be template-driven. Although that doesn't seem to be Apple's issue. Hopefully it's just a reviewer having a bad day and they'll reconsider.

Are they free apps or paid apps? I could see a situation where a paid app would want to be submitted by the client to avoid any confusion on how the payee gets paid. I'm in the middle of negotiations with a client where I am unsure yet if I will take a flat rate fee for the development, or a share of each app sold. Either way, if its submitted with my dev account, then it requires a lot more work in the long run accounting-wise. Maybe Apple should create a new type of account that is not a dev account, but rather a App Client account for this very scenario. Charge them $29.99 - they already know that price point works for them :) I wish you the best of luck. This industry moves at a fast enough pace that we don't need these kind of speed bumps to slow us down.

@Stobe -- Thanks. These are both free apps. I charged my client a flat rate to build. That's another reason why the rejection is puzzling. If they were paid apps, I would understand a bit more. I'll keep you posted when I hear back from Apple.

@MGoBlue - I was just wondering what type of arrangement you have with your clients in the event that their apps are rejected. Do you get paid for your work regardless? Seems like an important topic for anyone developing apps for a client.

Actually, hadn't thought about it, particularly since there are similar apps in the app store. I figured there wouldn't be a problem. Probably ought to have that contingency worked out, but I'm confident we'll get them accepted. If not on this go around, then I'll resubmit on my other account. I'm finding with Apple, it really depends on the reviewer. As an example, I had a LSU football trivia app rejected for possible trademark infringement, and a day later had an SEC football trivia app approved, and it contained the exact same content as the LSU app which was rejected (plus a lot more). I think persistence and creativity will pay off. I did discuss with each client the potential of setting up a developer account for them if they wanted to sell their app, so at least the topic has been broached.

@MGoBlue We have faced the same issue as you did, today. Please could you share if you were able to get pass the problem or what Apple has come back to you with in response to your challenge. Please help as we have 3 clients waiting for go live of their apps and Apple has just rejected the first of them because of the same reason - the app not having the seller name of the client but ours. Do let me know. many thanks in advance.

For anyone following this thread, I finally had a nice discussion with an Apple reviewer today as part of my appeal. According to him, as of July of this year they are no longer allowing developers to post apps developed for clients in their own developer account. You must set up developer accounts for clients. We had quite a discussion about this and I suggested changes in their terms and conditions since I still don't think it is clear that this is the new policy. I asked for assurance that ALL developers were being held to this same standard and was told that they were. It has especially affected web providers like appmakr. Now, that being said, I have had one app approved that was developed for a client. Not sure how it slipped by except that perhaps it appeared more generic. I was also told that developers are NOT allowed to pay the developer fee on behalf of the client. The credit card on file must match the client name. He said initially they were allowing this, but there was significant abuse and they have now disallowed it. So we'll see. At this point I've already talked with my clients and will be helping them set up accounts.

Applause for the good investigative work - great info here. As we all realize, this is a HUGE topic and easy to debate from either side. It may surprise folks to hear us say: WE AGREE that in most cases allowing developers to submit apps in volume is generally a bad idea. However, we DISAGREE that they would across-the-board dissallow it. There are far too many examples of skilled developers submitting uber-professional apps on behalf of their clients. I'm sure Apple realizes this and struggled hard to work this out. Our opinion has never changed, we think folks should make their own apps. We also think that folks should be able to make apps for others but only if they don't abuse the App Store (like so many do). It will be interesting to see how this looks in a year or so. Thanks again...

Its funny/ironic how since I've been following this thread, I just got an email from ReverbNation (a website for bands to post their music and info for potential booking) saying that they will make an app for my band. I looked at it, and it was very cookie cutter. I didn't follow the process enough to see how much it was going to cost, but I didn't see anywhere about having to sign up for an apple dev account. Funnier still, a friend came up to me the other day and said that their friend, who is a singer, just had an app made for them. When I looked at it, it took me 2 seconds to tell it was a Reverb Nation app.

@Stobe - Thanks for the info on ReverbNation. I searched them in iTunes (they've got a ton of apps) and all of their recently released apps appear to be sold under individual accounts - not their own. While older apps (at least prior to June) are sold under the Eminor, inc. seller account. So, at least I can see others being held to the same standard by Apple. @David - Agree with you that an across the board decision seems dumb. I have found examples in iTunes of developers who have released apps for clients since the supposed change in Apple's policy, and I've found examples of developers releasing apps under their clients' accounts. So, as usual with Apple, they're inconsistent. For me, I'm looking at it as another billable hour - setting up accounts for clients.

Just kicking this thread back up since I got another email from Reverbnation about their app offerings. I still haven't explored enough to see what they charge, but I did find this in the FAQ, and found it interesting. Thought you'd like to see it.... quote from FAQ Why is the trial only for Android? Apple recently made a policy change that requires ReverbNation to purchase a developer account on your behalf. This account is the account that we submit your app under, and is the reason that we require a real person’s name for registration. ReverbNation must pay $100 per year for this account, and the cost is baked into the yearly fee for any Mobile App package that has an Apple app. For this reason, we do not offer trials on Apple apps.

ok guys, this is it. we are now asking our clients to create developer accounts to submit the apps we create for them. question - does anyone yet know how long apple takes to do the identify verification - do they do it for all accounts or do they pick some suspects randomly.. do you know what papers they ask for as part of the verification, their list they have mentioned seems rather vague.. very sad.

We've done this lots and LOTS of times for all sorts of folks. It's tough to say how long it will take. Some are done in a few days, some a few weeks. For some of our larger enterprise clients with national and international name brands it takes only a few days. For some other smallish clients with random business names it take a bit longer. Individual developer accounts almost never take more than a few days. The business accounts are the ones that tend to take a bit longer. In all cases, when helping folks register as a business Apple wanted at minimum: a) A copy of coprpate letter head. Funny how many 'businesses' don't have this these days! b) A signed copy of the original parternship agreement, articles of incorporation, or sole proprietor papers. This depends on the type of business entity. And, also, this is a very Amercian Centric idea, international business entities are totally different sometimes and I have no idea how Apple treats those. c) A telephone conversation with 'somebody from the company'. They have always called to confirm.

What is really frustrating with this policy is that the actual developer receives no credit if the app is submitted under an account belonging to the client. Apple should have made sure they got their iTunes terminology right first, before enforcing this decision. They need to distinguish between developer and seller and give due credit to both. I have spoken to apple about this and although they understand the gap they didn't sound like they are planning to do anything about it in the near future..