The saga involving Dash's ban from the Apple App Store refuses to die down and appears to be morphing into some form of minor controversy. In the latest update, the developer has offered more details about his position, including fresh evidence that can purportedly support the idea that Apple made a mistake.
In the initial statement that Dash developer Bogdan Popescu posted after Dash's App Store removal, he expressed consternation why the app was booted. He cited an email from Apple merely detailing a notice of account termination based on some ambiguous claim of fraudulent activity. Apple has gone on to accuse Popescu of review manipulation.
In a new statement, Popescu disclosed that the manipulation charge stemmed from his account's link to a relative's account.
"What I've done: 3-4 years ago I helped a relative get started by paying for her Apple's Developer Program Membership using my credit card," Popescu explained in a Kapeli blog post. "From then on those accounts were linked in the eyes of Apple."
It turned out, the account of Popescu's relative was the one allegedly involved in review manipulation and, as a result, Dash and Popescu's iTunes account were closed.
Popescu and Apple had been in contact with each other during the past two years in efforts to thresh out ways to solve the issue. At one point, Apple seemed to have committed to restoring the developer's account if Popescu will publish a statement that admits some semblance of wrongdoing. The developer refused.
The conversation, thereafter, revolved on Popescu's subsequent public statement and that, regardless of whether he admits guilt, Apple will restore his account. But shortly afterward, an Apple spokesperson publicly accused him of manipulating reviews, which naturally aggravated the affair even further.
"Almost 1,000 fraudulent reviews were detected across two accounts and 25 apps for this developer so we removed their apps and accounts from the App Store," Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Apple, said. "Warning was given in advance of the termination and attempts were made to resolve the issue with the developer but they were unsuccessful."
Fortunately for his defense, the developer was able to record one of the telephone exchanges wherein Apple admitted that it did not notify the developer about the ban or what exactly was going on.
It is not yet clear how this issue will be resolved. But developers — those who have been using Dash — have been very vocal about their support for the app. The backlash, which is threatening to snowball, is exerting pressure on Apple and could reinforce the perception of unfairness in the flagging process and its investigations to determine wrongdoing.
