It’s been a while coming, but I was very happy to check my mail today and see this:

It wasn’t a simple process however. In fact, it took 4 separate attempts before they were accepted by Apple. And it had nothing to do with the binary. Rather, it was all in the description of the In App Purchase.

We deliberately designed the Lite apps not to be simply a cut down version of the premium apps, but to allow the easy upgrade path within the app. In effect, you always have the option, via a simple 2-step process, to pay and release all the premium content.

And that means having to describe what the user will be getting if they upgrade.

See that ’23 More Categories’? There’s a little box in the Apple submission system where I had to put that in. There’s a bigger box just below where I can put a more detailed description. Here’s what I originally inserted:

Little Box: All Categories Upgrade

Big Box: Upgrades Lingopal to include all 25 categories

And it got rejected. I thought I had written as accurately and simply as possible what purchasers would be getting. So I tried again, with a slight tweak for the Big Box content. It too got rejected.

You have to remember that this isn’t just a quick change, email it to Apple then they get back to you overnight. There’s a process and it takes days, if not weeks. While this was going on I was trying to get some guidance from Apple about what was and wasn’t permitted in the text. There are some guidelines, but I couldn’t see anything in them which suggested I was in breach of them. I was very fortunate to actually get someone from Apple on the phone (I bet there aren’t too many people who can claim that), and while Richard Chipman was very courteous and did his best to help, it was still very much a trial and error process.

Eventually, by writing ’23 More Categories’ and ‘Gives Lingopal 23 more categories and hundreds more phrases’, the apps got accepted.Perhaps Apple could provide some ore concise guidelines so developers don’t have to constantly poke around in the dark?

So this now means that people can download a Lite app for free – that’s all the languages plus Lingopal 44 – and get to play with the app, before deciding whether they want the extra content. As it stands it’s still a pretty useful app, and it’ll be interesting to watch how it gets taken up over the next few weeks and months.

Keep a lookout for a new update with a couple of fancy features very soon. In the meantime, all our Lingopal Lite apps can be found here (though curiously the Lingopal 44 Lite isn’t yet showing, though its status is ‘Ready for Sale’).