Apple Relaxes Developer Restrictions and Reveals App Store Guidelines

In an about face this morning, Apple has decided to relax the previous restrictions placed on developers regarding development tools used in the creation of iOS applications and has also revealed the guidelines for app approval on the App Store.

We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.

This follows months of heated debate and punditry from developers, commentators, executives and enthusiasts regarding the restrictions with a particular focus on Adobe’s development tools being held up as the most visible example.  The revelation of the App Store Guidelines also follows months of developer confusion regarding Apple’s policies on what is and is not allowed on the App Store, as Apple has previously applied its own guidelines on an inconsistent basis.