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Following my report yesterday, Apple has removed many of the apps I've listed. When you try to find them on the App Store, they are no longer available.
The revision guidelines of the App Store are very clear with regard to duplicate applications. According to rule 4.3, you can not run the same application multiple times on the App Store if it is considered spam.
But this rule was poorly applied and some companies took advantage of it. In my initial report, I was focusing on one particular category – VoIP applications that allow you to get a second phone number and send and receive calls and SMS from this new number.
Developers publish multiple versions of the same application so that they can use different names, keywords, and categories. In this way, they can cover a wide range of keywords when you search for an app in the App Store.
So let's look at the developers I called yesterday. We still do not know if some of these applications will reappear after some changes.
TextMe, Inc.
BinaryPattern and Flexible Numbers LLC
Appverse Inc.
Dingtone Inc.
This case illustrates once again that Apple holds the keys of the kingdom of the App Store. The company acts as a judge and can make or break certain companies.
Some of these companies have published clones of their applications and have benefited from this strategy for many years. The main problem here is that the rules of the App Store are not applied consistently.
Many clones in other categories
The clone wound is far from over. Many categories also use this optimization strategy of the App Store.
JPEG Labs has published four different apps that let you print photos in Walgreens or CVS stores around you. They all do the same thing but have different names and keywords. (They also tell you to leave a review right after opening the app.)
Photo Prints: One Hour Photos
Print photos: one-hour impressions
Printmatic 1 hour photo printing
Canvas pictures on the same day
When you can not beat them, get them
MailPix, Inc. is another good example. You can find multiple copies of the same application. The company is also slowly expanding its footprint on the App Store by acquiring competitors and turning these applications into duplicate versions of the main application.
MailPix has acquired the Photobucket printing application to make it a clone.
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