It's fine if the rules change once in a while but apple should clearly and fairly communicate that to everyone.<p>Now you have to be a part of some good ol boy club with access to the right backchannels to develop software these days?
Apple's inconsistency about what is and is not allowed in the App Store is one of the most frustrating things about developing for their platform. They should be clear and consistent. It's fine to expand the capabilities of the platform (it seems silly that iOS apps can't use USB), but Apple needs to announce when things that were disallowed are now OK.
Do you have any concerns about doing the research and confirming the market exists for this product and then getting 'Sherlocked'? Did you spend any time evaluating other platforms such as Android? I understand from my own experience how challenging that platform can be, just curious to see if you looked into it as an alternative or hedge.
Honest question because I don't know either Apple's stand on this or the technical challenges you would have faced: Did you consider bluetooth?