14 DAY TRIAL // The developers behind iTether, an iOS application that allowed iPhone owners to have have unlimited Internet tethering from their 3G connection, have confirmed that their software is no longer available on the iTunes App Store.
Upon reporting on its approval in the App Store yesterday, I noted that there was a good chance iTether would not be available via Apple’s digital distribution venue for long, an opinion echoed by several news outlets worldwide.
The app’s developers have now confirmed everyone’s expectations and explained the reasons behind iTether’s pulling in a blog post:
“Around 12PM EST, Apple called our head office to let us know they were going to go ahead and pull our app iTether from the App Store. They stated it was because the app itself burdens the carrier network, however they offered us no way to remedy the solution… We were very clear when listing the app what the primary function was and they even followed up with several questions and requested a video demo then they approved the application.”
Tether says it “strongly disagrees” with Apple’s decision, arguing that their own data history on over half a million users showed that “the average user consumes less than 200 MBs of data per month on Tether.”
They strengthen their argument, noting that “In comparison, one TV show streamed from Netflix, an approved Apple App, could easily be in the 300-400 MBs range.”
Tether admits that some users will, indeed, consume more than the average customer, “however that’s the case with any of these types of products,” says the blog post.
In fact, Tether believes their solution would have generated profits for the wireless carriers, not dents in their bottom line.
“Our team is very disappointed in Apple’s decision; as we strongly believe we help carriers better monetize their data stream by pushing customers into new data tiers,” reads the blog entry.
Tether said they had wanted to port other “innovative” solution over to the iOS platform, yet Apple’s decision has made them reconsider their options.