After receiving some clarification from Apple last night over the removal of discovery app AppGratis, CEO Simon Dawalt is weighing in today with a statement posted on the AppGratis website explaining that the situation has been “absolutely crazy” to deal with:
While explaining that App Gratis has gone through a number of rejections for breaking App Store guidelines in situations that were later resolved with Apple, Dawalt shed some light on what happened on Apple’s side:
Dawalt continued by saying the situation with Apple is “far from finished” and urged Apple to contact him to discuss the issue and users to spread the word. He also confirmed that the app’s current 12 million users will have nothing to worry about going forward:
I asked how he and his team could have possibly changed their minds overnight, pretty much pulling the plug on a 45-person company. He seemed very detached regarding the gravity of the situation, and was unable to let me know on what specifics these decisions had been made.
For us, obviously, it’s a hard hit. And as I’m about to push the ‘publish’ button on this story, I’m still in absolute shock as to what is happening to us.
Our iOS apps may have been unavailable now for a few days, but at the same time, a few million free apps have been downloaded through AppGratis since last Friday. So for now, it’s business as usual in AppGratis’s world.