Ziischtig,28 April, 2020

• apple

My latest Züri.Tours app  (yes I know a tourism app during the lockdown is 🤨) was approved for iOS distribution but...not for macOS) but why? Because it is apparently a book📚:

"Your app is primarily a book and is therefore not appropriate for the App Store.

Next Steps

Books should be submitted to the Apple Book Store. To work with Apple on Book Store distribution, you should first verify that your content meets the following requirements:

- ISBNs are required for all paid titles you intend to distribute

- Is in either:

- EPUB format, passing EpubCheck 1.0.5

- Multi-Touch format, created by iBooks Author

Resources

To obtain an ISBN for your content and learn more about ISBNs, please see US ISBN Agency. Then complete the iTunes Connect Online Application.

Note: An ISBN is not required if you have a free book agreement and choose to offer your book free on the Book Store.

Visit Apple Books Partner Search for information on working with a content partner."

Now let's forget for a second that an app that dynamically loads the list of attractions of a city (with translation in 4 languages) and gives you an easy way to see the map and route to your destination cannot be a book. The question is really how can app be a book for macOS but not in iOS ? 

I think that this highlights a number of issues with the review process. If you allow developers to easily publish in the App store for both iOS and macOS why make the approval process so inconsistent ? 

I have now released the desktop app (duly notarized by Apple) directly on my site.

Indeed my app is very simple and not very rich but there is no point in displaying a fancy map when, with a click of a button, you can have your native app open and route to the destination. No need to grant location permissions to yet another app.

So I know my app is not that great but is definitley *not* a book.