Apple has denied approval of another very useful iPhone Application called MailWrangler. This adds to the previous Podcaster application ban. Both applications were denied approval for the same reason, duplicate functionality. Apple said MailWrangler duplicates functionality of the existing mailing application hence it will not be added to the App Store. Right! If so then what’s happening to all those duplicate games, some even with the same name? How’re those applications getting access to App Store? Are they because they don’t pose any sort of competition to Apple’s own applications? If this keeps happening then I guess we’ll be stuck with all these native applications with limited features such as iPhone GPS.

On one side Apple is trying to attract developers to join their party and start developing more and more applications so that they can make more money out of those and on the other side they’re blocking evolving ideas. I am wandering how this kind of attitude is going to help all those new and upcoming developers who’re thinking of joining Apple’s iPhone Developer University Program? Because, it’s definitely not a good feeling to see all your hard work going down the drain just because big brother gets to decide what’s appropriate and what’s not. I am not saying there shouldn’t be any controlling policy. There has to be, to maintain quality of the applications. But looks like that has been misinterpreted or rather misused in these instances. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in future.

Back to the application now and let’s see what it was supposed to deliver. If you use multiple Gmail accounts for your email and other Google services then you’ll understand what you’re missing on. MailWrangler lets you add multiple Gmail accounts and switch between them easily without having to log into them separately in different sessions. You may say you can do that now by adding multiple Gmail accounts to the built in mail application. You sure can but you’re missing on features like threading, starred messages, Google contacts, etc. MailWrangler’s embedded WebKit allows users to access their multiple Gmail accounts and have access to all those features along with many others, without going through the hassle of logging in and out, every time you want to jump between your accounts. Really handy piece of application if you ask me. But Apple didn’t think so. The response from Apple to the developer Angelo DiNardi was:

… 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. …

To his surprise DiNardi said:

… my app is simply directly loading and showing Gmail inside of an application. How you can confuse Gmail with Mail.app I’m not sure.

Another reason for refusing the app was:

… There is also no way to edit an account once it has been added. …

But you can delete and add an account again. The future enhancements were supposed to add this feature, the developer claimed. And I totally agree with him, how many times do you change your gmail password? He concluded:

… deal with Apple’s messy bureaucracy. I guess I should just write another flashlight or glowstick application to actually get published. That’s the only apps Apple seems to want in the store.

I don’t blame him to be very upset about the whole thing. I would too if I was in his position.

Your thoughts?

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