The Swedes Have Invaded Apple Headquarters (Update: A Bit Prematurely)

Swedish television station SVT Play has a problem. It, like so many other developers, has fallen prey to the App Store’s notorious approval process. But rather than take their time in App Store purgatory sitting down, the Swedes behind the app have decided to pay a visit to Cupertino. They’re now standing on a street corner near Apple headquarters with mock iPhone costomes, giant signs, Swedish flags, and even a pair of women decked out in traditional Swedish garb. And they’ve set up a live stream of their crusade at DearSteveJobs.com (scroll down to watch). Try not to giggle when they wave their tiny flags at the cars driving by.

Update: This is apparently just a publicity stunt — the app was only submitted today. Apple has given us the following statement:

The SVT app was just submitted for App Store approval today. We look forward to reviewing it as part of the normal review process in hopes that it may soon join the more than 100,000 apps already on the App Store.”

The site includes this open letter to Jobs:
Stockholm December 16, 2009

Dear Steve Jobs,

We at SVT (the Swedish public service broadcaster) would like to ask you a favor. Below is a description of our SVT Play application. And to the right you can see all the Swedes who are eagerly awaiting its approval. So please Steve, hurry up and approve our app.
We have tried to simplify the approval process as much as possible for you. Just press the green button below and record a video of yourself saying “JA” (that’s “yes” in Swedish, pronounced “yah”).

Come on, Steve, Sweden is waiting. Say JA!

Sincerely,
SVT, Sweden


The green button the letter refers to actually activates an in-browser video recorder, which would let Jobs leave a message announcing their approval. I’m not expecting that to happen, but given the huge amount of positive publicity Apple has gotten from similarly small gestures, don’t totally rule it out either.

You can see a demo of the application here: