Yet Another Apple App Store Rule – No “Animated GIFs” For You!

By
On April 2, 2009

Anthony from the app dvelopment company  Rooftop Collective recently contacted us to share his App Store tale of woe. 

They have developed a really cool 3D app "3D Me" that creates a 3D image doesn’t require you to wear those dorky 3D glasses. The effect is really neat and is created throught the use of an animated gif.

I’ll let Anthony explain the problem himself…

As we’ve tried to launch 3D Me we’ve run into a roadblock when it comes to screen shots. 3D Me is a photography app that allows users to create, catalog, and share 3D-effect images. No 3D glasses are necessary. 3D Me achieves its 3D effect through the use of animated GIFs–please see galleries at 3dmeapp.com for more examples. However, the App Store doesn’t support the GIF file format! In fact the App Store supports JPEGs and nothing else. Because of this restriction we are not able to properly showcase our results–when providing a screen shot, we can do no better than offer a non-animated (and therefore NON-3D!) JPEG.

As a result, the App Store doesn’t show what the app can do. The result is this question… how do you sell an app when you are REQUIRED to use one system and one system only and that system will let you sell the app but not actually advertise it? We decided to help by showing you, our readers, a side-by-side shot of what the App Store shows and what the app actually does…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Details on the App can be found HERE. The App is $1.99 and can be purchased HERE.