In a shocking disclosure, Apple has admitted that in the past three months or so, at least three of its own applications had been rejected at the App Store.

Company executives were at a loss to explain how this had happened. Separate teams at Apple had been working on “a couple of fun games” and an app that lets you import pictures from your Mac to the iPhone using Wi-Fi. Inexplicably, while all these were submitted for release in November at about the same time, none of them ever made it to the App Store.

“We have no idea how it happened,” said Jerry McDougal, Vice President of Merchandising, Marketing and Store Operations at Apple Inc, working on one of the games that was rejected. “At first we thought that there was a delay in the approval process, especially with the holidays season coming up. And although we never heard anything from the guys at the App Store, we didn’t think an outright rejection was even an option.”

While no details were made available officially, the talk is that the two games  were rejected for” inappropriate, unsuitable content.” The app was, bafflingly, rejected on grounds of duplicating an iPhone functionality.

Some wags are guessing that Apple runs a complex system which randomly picks a few apps to reject every month, and also picks randomly from a set of reasons for rejection. This policy, it is said, is possibly essential for the stability of the App Store itself. The unexpected rejection of the recent app by South Park, they say, supports this theory.

Apple has so far been spectacularly successful in its App Store releases. On the launch of the App Store, it released its popular app Remote, which lets people play music on their Macs from their iPhones by connecting to the systems via Wi-Fi. The little utility, which proved immensely popular, was soon followed by Texas Hold’em, a complex poker game executed to perfection.

“At least it’s a relief that these three apps have been rejected clearly. There are a couple of other apps still awaiting approval, and now we wonder if they’re ever going to make it,” Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President, Retail added.

Some sources at Apple insisted that this was in fact a positive development. With every such issue Apple learns a little bit more about its app approval system, something that it has been confused about ever since the App Store launched.

“The biggest lesson here,” said Greg Joswiak, Vice President of iPod and iPhone Marketing , “is that we need to focus on developing what the App Store guys like, and then think about whether iPhone users will also like your app or game.”

For some detailed lists of apps rejected so far, see iphonefootprint and app graveyard. For an in-depth analysis of the App Store approval process, see Joy of Tech.

[Via iPhonefootprint Fake News]