Adding to the long list of rejected applications on the App Store, here is yet another application from DiNardi that got rejected for duplicating the functionality of the built-in iPhone application mail. MailWrangler (the rejected application) was submitted on July 17th, and Apple responded on August 29th. That was a long and a patient wait, only to be rejected in the end.

What took Apple so long? This same pain of waiting applies to those who apply for developers’ license. Those who are lucky gets the license overnight, but for some it take months. Is Apple becoming very autocratic or was it always like this?

Coming back to our main story, MailWrangler is an application that allows users to check multiple Gmail accounts. This application saves users from the need of loging in and out of Gmail, typing the different usernames and pasword to check multiple gmail accounts using Safari. Users can also see threaded views, google contacts, archive, star, etc within the easy to navigate interface of the application.
Apple’s note for rejecting the application reads:

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

Apple is claiming that the developer is duplicating the built in Mail App on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Surprisingly, the application is specific for Gmail and it is hard to say how it duplicates the functionality of the Mail application. The second claim that users cannot edit an account once it is added also happens to be partly wrong. The developer says that users need to delete the account and re-add it in case some changes have been made to the username or the password.

Complaining about the un-transparent process involved in the selection of applications, DiNardi vented his disappointment in his personal blog :

If you’re going to have rules about this, enforce them across the board. The number of shitty apps in the store is off the charts and yet mine that actually works is getting blocked.

Something is not going well around here with the App Store. Some of the applications that we would really love to have on our devices, but which Apple rejected are NetShare, Podcaster and now this MailWrangler. Most of us will love to have these applications than those flashlights, glow stick and mosquito repellant applications right?