After rejecting Alex Sokirynsky’s rather useful Podcaster application for ‘duplicating iTunes functionality’, the Apple App Store have rejected another application on the same grounds. This time Angelo DiNardi wrote on his blog about how his MailWrangler application, which displays Gmail inside of other applications, was rejected by Apple.

The application, which was submitted in July, got the rejection message only in late August, with the following reason: “Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion.”

Except for the fact that DiNardi’s application has something to do with e-mail, there’s nothing in common between it and Apple’s Mail application. As DiNardi himself put it, “How you can confuse Gmail with Mail.app I’m not sure.”

Podcaster did do the same thing as iTunes, only better, so the rejection was logical if not justified; after all Apple would not want competition to their own software. However DiNardi’s MailWrangler has little in common with any Apple application and it seems that software is now being rejected arbitrarily, with no real reason. This forces developers who still want to make software for the iPhone to resort to alternative methods of distribution in lieu of a clear, fair set of criteria of software approval by Apple.

Sokirynsky resorted to selling his Podcaster app via a less-known yet still Apple-sanctioned distribution method called Ad Hoc. This method, primarily intended as a way for developers to beta-test their applications, allows developers to distribute a specific build of their software to up to 100 phones, based on their UDID. It now seems DiNardi may have to do the same.

Alternatives to the App Store have already started appearing in response to Apple’s arbitrary rejections, such as Apptism, through which you can directly buy applications from both the app-store and other, non-approved sources. It seems that for all of Apple’s control-mania, those who would escape this strict control will always appear, as this spirit of freedom has been the basis of the internet since its inception.