We all know that if you don’t have a nice app for the iPhone or iPod, one that doesn’t rival with any of Apple’s offerings, you shouldn’t even bother bringing it to the iTunes Store. Last week, Apple’s said NO to yet another useful application on its App Store, which “assists in the distribution of podcasts,” therefore, duplicating the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

However, not everything is as Apple puts it. First of all, Alex Sokirynsky’s Podcaster adds even more functionality to what Apple’s version for iTunes does, allowing users to download podcasts directly to the iPhone and iPod devices. This of course means that IT IS NOT A DUPLICATE, it’s just something way better that Apple doesn’t want to compete with.

Sokirynsky wrote on his blog that not only are there several other apps that allow users to listen to podcasts, such as Diggnation and Mobility Today, but there is also no mentioning in Apple’s guidelines for developers about not duplicating features available on desktop application.

The developer also noted that this entire story is “a bit strange” considering that there are other apps out there that “break” Apple’s duplication rule. “For example,” he noted, “any calculator app is duplicating the functionality of Apple’s calculator app. Any app that tells you the weather is duplicating the Yahoo weather app. Any app that lets you listen to music is duplicating the iPod portion of the iPhone.”

This is not a first for Apple in terms of rejecting popular apps with little or no explanation. That of course does not include the “I Am Rich” app, which made a few “lucky” buyers quite unhappy after paying $1000 for practically nothing.

But the list does include apps such as NetShare, which turned the iPhone into a wireless modem, but got turned down without explanation. Nullriver, the developer of NetShare, also talked about complying with Apple’s guidelines, which makes us wonder, why doesn’t Apple change them, since they seem to confuse so many developers?