Ad Viewer: My first app rejection story

This isn't a rail against the arbitrary policies of the Apple Store, instead it is the story of my somewhat cheesy application, Ad Viewer and its trip through the application approval process.

With the advent of iAd I thought there was an opportunity for an application that displayed ads, they would be interesting in and of themselves, and a possible market.  I thought that there was a good chance that Apple would reject it, all it does is display ads.

The timeline:
Submitted on June 17, 2010 @ 20:08
In Review on June 23, 2010 @ 20:16
Rejected on June 25, 2010 @ 09:37

We've reviewed your application Ad Viewer and we have determined that this application contains minimal user functionality and will not be appropriate for the App Store.

We encourage you to add additional user functionality to Ad Viewer and resubmit it for review.

I wasn't too surprised, I knew my application had limited functionality.  Just to explore my options I sent an email in response, asking if it was even possible for an application whose purpose in life is to show ads, was acceptable.

My surprise was that Monday evening I received a call from Apple.  A representative called to discuss the my application.  He told me that the form emails often do not give a proper representation.   We discussed the application, and he told me that the basic idea was not going to be something Apple allows in the application store.   I certainly understand this policy, although I think my Ad Viewer would have been useful and profitable, I understand why Apple would disallow it.    He was very professional, courteous, and spent a good deal of time talking to me.   I was impressed with the way Apple handled my very minor application.