Dear Fitbit,
I bought an Ionic a little while back which I could scarcely afford (it was upwards of £200) in the belief that I could recoup the cost by developing apps for it.
I wrote a Catholic Bible app called "Caritas NT" and a free sister app which I published first called "Caritas John". The free app contains just five books from the New Testament; the paid app contains all twenty-seven books.
When I submitted Caritas NT for review I got this response:
"Due to the fact that this Clock Face content is not different or does not offer significant new value compared to existing apps (Caritas John), we have declined your submission. For cases when the only difference is the background image, you can add an option in the clock face settings for users to select the desired background image."
It appears the reviewer only gave my app a cursory glance. It's not even a clock face, and I didn't change a background image; I added twenty-two books which I painstakingly formatted into Fitbit-sized chunks over three evenings.
It is extremely common practice for proprietary software developers to publish a free/cheaper, trimmed-down version of their software/service. I can't emphasise this enough. Microsoft do it, Google do it, Amazon do it. Now I feel like Fitbit is penalising me for doing the exact same thing - effectively punishing me for a good will gesture on my part.
The full app most definitely offers more value and represents more work compared to the trimmed down version.
Please could someone from Fitbit contact the app review team, giving them this message in full, and ask them to reconsider?
Failing everything else, I would like Caritas John to be removed from the App Gallery, thus giving Caritas NT the unique value it apparently lacks.
Thank you.
