My company makes desktop software and we want to create an iPhone app that will be a free add-on for our customers. While the app itself will be small, it will need to download at least 200MB of audio and text files to actually have any use (we don’t want to include these files in the app itself because the needed files will vary a lot from user to user).
In response to a different question I asked recently on SO, someone wrote “An app shouldn’t download 200MB of data. It is time- and bandwith consuming and may cause Apple to reject your app.”
Is this true? If so, what can I do to mitigate the risk of rejection? I see here that there are a couple options for specifying which files should not be backed up to iCloud. Would that help? And which of those options (point 2 or 4 in the link) do I want?
If SO is not the appropriate place to ask questions about App Store submission issues, please let me know where I should move this question to.
EDIT
As a result of the answers I’ve received thus far, it seems that I need to further clarify my question. I am not concerned about how much users will be bothered by having to download a bunch of data in order to use the app for the first time, nor am I concerned about the app being over 20 MB and consequently requiring Wi-Fi for installation. I’m also not asking about the max app size allowed when submitting to the app store. I am simply asking about whether my app risks rejection because of the necessity to download so much data upon first launch in order for the app to function. And if there is indeed a risk of rejection, what steps may be taken to mitigate this risk?
Only by submitting an app will you know for sure whether Apple will approve it. But Apple has in the past approved apps that contained over 1GB of data, and apps capable of downloading over 1GB of data. Some iPad monthly magazine issues/downloads weigh in at well over 200 MB.
You might want to find a way to make youR app “useful” before, during or part way through any large download. And locking up the UI during a long download has definitely been reported as a reason for rejection of an app.