Apple relaxes App Store rules for developers

Apple gives devs an early Christmas present
Apple gives devs an early Christmas present

Apple has made an unprecedented move and announced it is relaxing the rules for applications on the App Store.

In a statement, the computing giant announced that it is "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."

Apple has always been a tad cloudy on what it will or won't allow on the App Store, so this is a move that will please developers looking to get their applications on to the iPhone.

It also means that third-party developer tools for iOS apps will be allowed - which is a huge turnaround for Apple.

Listened to devs

"We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart," Apple explained in its statement.

"Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program licence."

It continued: "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."

There's no word on when the review guidelines will be published, but this is an important step for Apple and shows the company is listening to the myriad devs who have contributed to the App Store – which currently houses over 250,000 apps.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.