Developers have felt the pain of the App Store process for quite some time now. This is quite know when somebody do not follow app submission rules. For one developer, however, the breaking of those rules has led to a phone call from none other than Mr. Jobs himself!
Frustrated by Apple’s rejection of his iPad app, Seattle developer Ram Arumugam e-mailed Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Two hours later, he picked up a phone call and heard: "Ram, this is Steve." Jobs was on the other end.
Ram Arumugam created an iPad application, called Economy for iPad, that was rejected for using an outside API call. Arumugam said he had used the private API to work around a problem with the on-screen keyboard, which Arumugam was having trouble removing from the screen after the user was done typing.
Apple rejected the app. Arumugam sent an appeal to the app-review board at Apple, and e-mailed Jobs on Oct. 26. He did not expect Jobs to call. "I was very surprised," he said. "I was not even sure whether he would have time to read the e-mail."
Arumugam said after talking to Jobs he removed the non-public code, and the app has since been accepted to the iPad marketplace. His $2.99 app, which tracks U.S. and state economic statistics such as GDP, unemployment and housing stats, is now the No. 1 selling paid app in the iPad store’s finance category, he said.
[via] Arumugam’s blog retelling the encounter.
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