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This rule has been removed quite a while ago. How else would you think that we would see Google Chrome on iOS. Or Sparrow (duplicates Mail.app) In fact, in the
by pilif 14y ago
This rule has been removed quite a while ago. How else would you think that we would see Google Chrome on iOS. Or Sparrow (duplicates Mail.app)
In fact, in their apology for the maps disaster, apple specifically recommended downloading map apps from other vendors (and they even feature a alternative maps category on the AppStore ATM).
As such I would believe it's highly likely that they would accept a Google Maps app.
- jakejake 14y agoThere is still a rule in the guidelines that mentions "Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store" though it doesn't specify whether those apps are Apple's own, or any other developer (in fact, comically, the rule lists "fart apps" as an example). They don't really say how many apps of a certain type will be accepted into the app store before this rule goes into affect. They also have rules against "Apps that look similar to Apps bundled on the iPhone", "user interfaces that mimic any iPod interface" and "Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product" I think basically the guidelines are written to allow Apple to reject apps with it's own discretion when it doesn't want them in the store. Whether that be for business reasons or otherwise. In the case of map apps, they seem to be rather lenient. I wonder if that's more of a grandfather type situation because they didn't have their own map app before iOS6.