This is a very serious accusation for Jobs to make — that someone (or multiple someones) deliberately fabricated stories about app store rejection for the purpose of publicity.
Steven Frank thinks that Steve Jobs claimed that developers sometimes lie to the press about their apps getting rejected from the App Store. Steven cites Macworld editor-in-chief Jason Snell’s version of what Jobs said at the D8 conference:
“What happens is, some people lie. They use undocumented APIs or try to do something different than as advertised and they run to the press. They get their 15 minutes of fame…. It’s unfortunate, but we take it in the chin. We don’t run to the press and say, this guy is a son-of-a-bitch liar!”
If that’s what Jobs said, then I think Steven, and others, are interpreting him wrong.
I read this as:
Sometimes, developers lie to Apple about whether they’re using undocumented APIs, or they lie in their app’s descriptions about what the app does or doesn’t do. Apple rejects these apps. When the developers then complain to the press about the fact that their apps have been rejected, they lie (by omission or otherwise) in failing to acknowledge the true reason(s) that their apps were rejected.
If that’s what Jobs meant — obviously, a massive “if,” since I wasn’t there to hear it, nor am I in Steve’s head — is the line still as objectionable?