Pubdate: Mon, 26 Jan 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ricardo Baca

APPLE SAYS NO TO SOME POT APPS

Dispensary Owners Lob Complaints Over Marketplace Shutout.

On the same November day that saw more than 1million people in 
Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D. C., vote to legalize recreational 
marijuana, a popular social media app rooted in the cannabis space 
was removed from Apple's massive commercial marketplace known as the App Store.

"The App Store is one of the largest content distribution channels in 
the world, and we'd already been on there for 14 months," said Isaac 
Dietrich, CEO of Denver-based social media outfit Mass Roots. "After 
we were taken down from the App Store, I called Apple back on 
election day and the guy said they had amended the App Store policy 
on cannabis social apps.

"I told him, ' You do know that Oregon, Alaska andD. C. are about to 
push legalization through.' He said the executives in the App Store 
said this content isn't the kind of content they want to see in the App Store."

Apple told The Denver Post its policies on marijuana apps have not 
changed. Its legal guideline 22.1 says, "Apps must comply with all 
legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users."

The typically private Apple would not comment on individual 
companies' complaints.

But Dietrich says something must have changed within the corporation 
recently. And his complaint against Apple isn't the only one from the 
marijuana tech space.

While cannabis legalization continues to push forward in the U. S., 
there are countless roadblocks still awaiting the legal pot industry 
- - especially given the plant's precarious relationship with federal 
law, which still lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug. The App 
Store's strict restrictions could make the marketplace cannabis' most 
heated tech battleground. After MassRoots' petition to Apple secured 
more than 10,000 signatures in two weeks, several other pot-related 
businesses are starting to gripe publicly about their negative 
experiences with Apple.

Casey Eastman, a developer with Denver-based Weedmaps, said: "I'd be 
surprised if I'm not pushing 20 rejections ( from Apple) in the last 
couple of years. And that's my professional record. But I guess 
failure is part of experience."

Zach Marburger, the CEO of Colorado-based development firm 
CannaBuild, said: "The issues with Apple have been all people are 
talking about in the last two weeks in the marijuana underground and 
the tech underground. If enough people cry foul, Apple will listen."

New developments

Among developers' complaints: An app or update is rejected without 
explanation; Apple doesn't like certain words or feature sets, but 
they don't always say which ones. Developers are forced to operate in 
the dark, poking and prodding blindly, they say, wasting time and 
money because the moderators of the App Store - which offers 
1.4million apps in 155 countries-won't explicitly say what's OK and what's not.

"We have 300,000- plus users on our iOS platform," said Eastman, 
whose employer Weedmaps directs users to legal pot shops and 
dispensaries."We're leaning on Apple, and we need that out there. 
Apple is going to find what works for them legally so they're not 
worried about repercussions from the government, but I wish they'd 
communicate that: ' Hey, we're worried about this, so we can't allow 
you to do this.' Instead you submit it, and they say, ' No, that 
won't fly.' You say, ' What about if we do this?' They say, ' We look 
forward to reviewing your app.' "

And the app review process takes more time, often another week or two.

A spot in the App Store is essential for most successful companies. 
In 2014 the App Store saw its billings grow by 50 percent when its 
apps generated more than $ 10 billion in revenue for developers, Apple said.

Eastman estimates that at least 30 percent of Weedmaps' overall 
traffic comes via its iOS app- a product that has taken hundreds of 
hours to meet Apple's guidelines. Some of the items Apple won't allow 
Weedmaps to include in its iOS app: pot menu prices, reviews, 
coupons, any mention of the words "recreational," "retail," "adult 
use" or "21- plus," and even its 4: 20 alarm, Eastman said.

And what about the Android servicing Google Play?

"We haven't had much of any resistance on Google Play and publishing 
for Android devices," said Eastman, adding that recreational pot 
shops inColorado and Washington are listed on Weedmaps' Android app, 
but not on its Apple app. "If we wanted to put an ( Android) update 
out today, we could do it with no resistance."

CannaBuild's Marburger has had the same experience,"We have an app 
that is a marijuana cooking calculator," he said. "Android approved 
it in five minutes, and Apple denied it in 10 days."

A technical advance

Back at MassRoots' Denver headquarters, Dietrich and his team are 
stressed. Of the 230,000 users on their Instagram-like interface, 
120,000 had downloaded its now-pulled Apple app. Whereas MassRoots 
was averaging 700 new sign-ups per day before the iOS issues, the 
company is now averaging only 400 - hardly the kind of trending a 
startup hopes for.

"We have great investors and a war chest to work with," said 
Dietrich. "But Apple is censoring the cannabis movement right now, 
and it's slowing down innovation in the cannabis industry to a 
greater extent than the federal government. I can't believe that ( 
Apple CEO) Tim Cook is letting this happen."

MassRoots hosted the Marijuana Tech Startup Competition in September 
2014 in Denver, and "almost every single app that came out of that 
weekend has been rejected by Apple," said Dietrich.

But it's not all bad news. When Marburger was first interviewed for 
this piece a few weeks ago, he was awaiting word back from Apple on 
his Whaxy app, which acts as an Open Table for pot shops and allows 
users to skip lines inside dispensaries.

A week later, Marburger heard back from Apple. Whaxy was approved. 
But the CannaBuild team chose to fix a bug and resubmit it to Apple 
for approval.

"I just assume every submission will get rejected until they do 
otherwise, even if prior ones have gotten approved," Marburger said. 
"With Apple, we hope for the best but prepare for the worst."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom