Apple does not want users submitting the price of their app along with the meta data. Whether it is in the screen shots, or in the name of the app, the company does not want developers promoting the price. Period. The company has stepped up its efforts towards the same and the app store is now blocking applications is the name or the screen shots include any too overt hints towards the kind of pricing users can expect to receive once they install the app.
Now no one is really going to mention the price if the app costs a ton, right? That would constitute negative advertising. The move is focused more upon developers that take competitive advertising to new levels and mention the word”Free” in the name of their apps. This particular tactic is not exactly new. Developers have been inserting the word “Free” before, after or in the middle of their app’s name to make it stand out. This of course has an effect on other app downloads as we have a tendency to go for the free stuff first.
Apple discouraged this kind of behavior in several of its literatures, including the company’s developer guide for iTunes Connect and its overview of App Store product pages. Nevertheless, the use of ‘Free’ continued unabated. This time around Apple is looking to clamp down on this practice and has started blocking submissions of apps that contain these words. The error message does not leave much doubt associated with why this is happening:
Your app’s name, icons, screenshots, or previews to be displayed on the App Store include references to your app’s price, which is not considered a part of these metadata items.
Please remove any references to your app’s price from your app’s name, including any references to your app being free or discounted. If you would like to advertise changes to your app’s price, it would be appropriate to include this information in the app description. Changes to your app’s price can be made in the Pricing and Availability section of iTunes Connect.
As far as existing applications are concerned, Apple is likely to reject updates that contain references to the price of the app. The development is somewhat surprising considering that neither Google, nor Microsoft are known to make much fuss about technicalities in the name. But then, Apple is known to be very particular about this kind of stuff.
