Apple to eject Siri competitior from store

The British developer of a voice app for the iPhone says Apple is trying to remove it from the App Store because it's "competitive" with Apple's own Siri app. Launched first as an Android App, the Evi voice assistant app made its iOS debut in Apple's App Store in mid-January. Now William Tunstall-Pedoe, chief executive officer of Evi developer True Knowledge in Cambridge, England,says he received a phone call from an Apple representative reportedly telling him Apple was going to remove Evi from the App Store since it was similar to Siri, CNET.com reported. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines state: "Apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected." But Tunstall-Pedoe said Apple, based in the United States, is removing it because it can successfully compete with Siri. "I don't think it takes too much of a leap of the imagination to realize that 'confusingly similar' is code for 'competitive with,'" Tunstall-Pedoe told Web site TechCrunch, "and that all the user and press reviews along the lines of 'now you don't need to buy a 4S -- you can download Evi', 'better than Siri' etc. have resulted in a change of heart from Apple about allowing its users to get the app." Evi is powered by True Knowledge's search engine technology, which provides a wide range of data, CNET reported.