It turns out that Apple trying to suppress the book App Store Confidential was the best possible marketing the book could have received.
What would have likely been an obscure book with a small audience has now shot up to become a bestseller on Amazon’s bestseller list in Germany.
But Apple considers the existence of the book as a threat. According to them, it reveals important company secrets.
Tom Sadowski, the author of the book and man responsible for the German App Store until November of last year, believes that Apple’s reaction is disproportionate since he only wrote about his personal experiences in the company, and gives some obvious advice on how to design a successful app.
Those who have read the book to check its content have indicated that it is rather basic and has nothing that they would see as a threat to Apple’s business.
Sites like SmartGo have said that Apple has no valid argument to ban the book:
“As the workings of the App Store are of crucial interest to developers, I read through it from a developer’s perspective and noted what I learned – interesting, but nothing that I think Apple should be blocking the book for.”
Beyond some passage that may represent bad advertising for the company, Sadowski has not written business secrets.
It should be noted that the manuscript is only translated into German, but this has not prevented it from being ranked first in Amazon’s “Political Reference” category.
The publisher, Murmann Verlag, is already in the production of a second edition.
Tom Sadowski’s lawyer, Ralph Oliver Graef, said that Apple is currently being very careful about the book, since they have not decided to take the case to court, perhaps for fear of a verdict against them.
Apple is simply pressing Sadowski and the publisher, but neither of them has plans to cancel the book just because of this request.
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