That's an awful lot of apps to slip through the holes. The disturbing part is not so much that apps that violate their terms get removed, it's that seemingly nobody is safe.

Take the recent removal of adult-themed apps for instance - they in no way violated Apple's developer terms, but were banned anyways. Apple is well within their rights to do it - you're on their platform, but IMHO this sort of thing will encourage developer flight if it continues.

If history is any indication, the best cause of dissent and rebellion is inconsistent governance - people may tough it out if there's a 100%-effective way to keep the gestapo from raiding your home at night, but if you introduce enough uncertainty they will run and/or fight. By encouraging this sort of seemingly arbitrary banning, Apple is risking the long-term health of the App Store.

No, applications using private frameworks are allowed on a case-by-case basis, e.g. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/12/steve-jobs-interve... and http://www.macworld.com/article/144963/2009/12/ustream_iphon...

I'm really not "buying" anything. I just don't think they banned those apps on technical grounds. What the hell does that even mean - "private frameworks" ? Isn't this exactly the kind of thing that got Microsoft into trouble ? They are just abusing a market position if you ask me. And hiding behind all sort of most absurd excuses (when they bother to give some at all).

Um... Godwinned?