Apple CEO Calls Irritated DeveloperApple CEO Calls Irritated Developer

Developer Ram Arumugam didn't expect to hear from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs when he fired off an e-mail complaining that the company had rejected his iPad app. So imagine his surprise when Arumugam answered his iPhone at a noisy kids soccer arena and heard, "Ram, this is Steve."

Now, Arumugam didn't convince Jobs to reverse the rejection, but the CEO of Cascade Software was impressed nevertheless that the tech icon would take the time to discuss his problem. The call reinforced what Arumugam said he has read of Jobs: That he's a "detail-oriented executive and a hands-on guy who is intimately involved with his company's work."

"His phone call reinforced those notions and went further to suggest that he was also a very conscientious guy who cared about people," Arumugam said in his blog. "The fact that he took the time to read my email, think about the app, and then personally call me was amazing."

Cascade is a Seattle-based startup that builds iPhone and iPad apps. The application that Arumugam was working on, called Economy for iPad, uses federal data to provide a snapshot of the U.S. economy. The technical problem he was having stemmed from a bug in Apple's iPad software development kit.

To get around the problem, Arumugam used a proprietary application programming interface. However, Apple doesn't allow the use of private APIs, only public ones, so the app was rejected. When Arumugam appealed, the review team rejected it again.

After discussing the problem with Jobs, Arumugam decided to rework the application to eliminate the need for the private API. He resubmitted the app, it was approved, and it was number 16, as of Thursday, on the list of top paid iPad apps.

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