Did Apple Block Ad-Hoc Distribution of Podcaster?

The rejection saga for Alex Sokirynsky, the developer of Podcaster, an iPhone app that manages and plays podcasts continues. His app was first rejected by Apple because "it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes."

So, Alex decided to bypass Apple and distribute the app via ad-hoc App distribution to an iPhone user who donated $9.99.

However, Alex has run into trouble with Apple again, he had posted (post has been removed) on this blog that Apple has rescinded his authority to provision new ad-hoc licenses for his iPhone app. So did Apple really block ad-hoc distribution of Podcaster?

The rejection of Podcaster because "it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes" had caused a lot of controversy and debate in the blogosphere. It joined a growing list of iPhone apps that have been rejected or removed from the App Store.

Alex decided to bypass Apple and distributed the app via the Ad-Hoc App Distribution if you donated $9.99. So though the rejection was bad news for the iPhone developer, the good news was that the controversy generated a lot of interest for his iPhone App.

He claimed to have provisioned more than 1300 devices using the ad-hoc app distribution, thus making a cool $13000 or more from his iPhone app that was rejected by Apple as he didn't even have to part with the 30% of the revenues that Apple charges developers from developers for iPhone Apps bought via the App Store.

However, the fact that Alex was able to provision more than 1300 devices is surprising as Apple gives iPhone developers only 100 licenses to distribute their iPhone app using the ad-hoc distribution method. The ad-hoc distribution method is primarily used by developers for beta testing their apps, so looks like Alex was using some loophole (probably unknowingly) to generate more than 100 licenses. 

So I really don't think Apple has blocked iPhone developer's ad-hoc distribution as he had claimed on his blog, it has just fixed the loophole that was allowing him to generate unlimited ad-hoc licenses of his banned iPhone app.

Though the rejection of Podcaster is debatable as there are quite a few apps that replicate Apple's app like the scientific calculator, he should have expected the axe to fall on this sooner or later.

To learn more about the Podcaster app, you can view this video:

How many of you think Podcaster will be available via Cydia? I think we will see it quite soon.

Update (1st Oct, 2008):

I had guessed it right, Podcaster is now available via Cydia for jailbroken iPhone. You can try it for 14 days and if you like it you can buy the activation code for $4.99 via the developer's website.

Thanks Ameet for the tip!

[via Tuaw]

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