Apple Forcing All Developers To Remove 'Free Memory' Functionality? Or Just Some?

According to the developers of iStat, a system and battery monitoring app for the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple is now forcing developers to remove functionality from apps that allow users to "free memory" with the tap of a single button. Apps such as iStat are usually employed to free RAM being used by native apps so it can be reallocated to other apps.  This can also be done by simply restarting your device, but who has time to wait for a restart? Bjango, the developer of iStat, has stated that Apple is no longer allowing this "free memory" functionality, and they haven't given a reason as to why.

Apple simply called us and demanded we remove the "free memory" feature. They wouldn't give a reason as to why it had to be removed. We basically had a choice between removing it or having the app deleted by apple if we didn't. Neither were great solutions but we talked with as many of our users as we could and more of them wanted updates then the free memory feature so that's the route we took.

Instead of removing the app from the App Store, Bjango decided to only remove the "free memory" feature.  Another "free memory" app developer, Recession Apps, took a different route and actually removed all offending apps to avoid negative user feedback.  They did, however, submit lite versions of the apps with the functionality removed. Since Apple failed to give a reason for the removal, we are only left to speculate.  The odd thing is that we were able to find another "free memory" app in the App Store called Memory Sweep [Free] by Gary Fung.  But why would Apple remove all other competing apps and not this one?  One possibility could be that Apple just hasn't notice it or hasn't gotten around to notifying the developer, which we can confirm that Gary Fung hasn't been contacted about removal at the time of this post.  The other possibility could be that Memory Sweep goes about freeing up memory differently than the other apps. As stated in the Memory Sweep's description, "Free 15mb for moderate use or 30mb to maximize clean-up. IMPORTANT: It is not recommended to free more than 30mb, therefore this is the maximum memory we have set."  The other "free memory" apps don't have a limit, they actually allocate memory until the iPhone OS detects that its memory is critically low and terminates background processes.  This method could possibly lead to other problems, which may be the reason Apple has decided they shouldn't be allowed in the App Store. No matter what the reason is, as always, Apple just isn't being clear enough with developers.  If there is a valid reason, they should be notified so they can fix it.

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