I'm an iPhone developer as well and I know exactly where you're coming from. Unfortunately, Apple should and probably will reject your app as such. Unfortunate

I'm an iPhone developer as well and I know exactly where you're coming from. Unfortunately, Apple should and probably will reject your app as such. Unfortunately Apple's standpoint is that the tabbar is a universally understood functionality that switches views. Personally I think that if you subclass the tabbar and make your own visual style, and color icons, you'll have the same (if not better) understandability, a better aesthetic, and Apple will not reject the subclass.