14 DAY TRIAL // The latest version of the popular emailing client Sparrow has been rejected by Apple on grounds of using a Rich Text feature that isn’t allowed in iOS 5.
Sparrow developer Dinh Viet Hoa wrote on Twitter today, “Apple called to tell me that Sparrow has been rejected. Our app will be removed from the appstore [sic] if we don’t submit a new version soon.”
Asked why he believed Apple rejected the app, Viet Hoa replied, “We managed to get a rich text edition [and] the keyboard appeared without the user [having] to tap on ios5. We’re fighting with apple to get the update of the app through the AppStore validation process.”
Apparently the culprit was Sparrow’s Rich Text support under iOS 5 which could be using a private API (which falls under no-no with Apple’s App Store review guidelines).
As a result of the rejection, Viet Hoa says the next Sparrow update will require iOS 6.