You'd think SOMEONE at Apple should be offering Katrina Parrott a job

Maybe Katrina Parrott shouldn't have invested all that money - $200K - in her emoji startup. After all, her big idea was making emojis in different skin tones, which, while they weren't really available before she started making them, wasn't going to be that difficult for big emoji-providers like Apple e to replicate once they figured out that "human" emojis should come in more colors than Caucasian. 

But she had some pretty good reasons to believe that with her new company, iDiversicons, she had a business there.

Her idea came about when her college-age daughter mentioned that she'd like to have an emoji that "looked" like her. (I've put "looked" in quotes, because emojis don't exactly look like anyone.) At that point in time, Parrott didn't even know what an emoji was. Her career was in logistics. No need to know what an emoji was. Plus this was way back in 2013, well before the biggest Luddites in the world were throwing emojis into their text messages.

Anyway, Parrott thought her daughter might we onto something. She hired someone to code some diverse emojis for her and began selling them on the Apple App Store. She had

300 emojis in her app, and they were registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Sales weren't all that stellar, but she was selling over 1,000 a month. At $.99 a pop, she wasn't going to get rich. But it was something.

Plus Parrott was getting some traction in the online press. So she figured the success was just around the corner.

What she didn’t account for was that the App Store doesn’t operate like most marketplaces. Apple restricts the kinds of things applications can do on the App Store, reserving many functions for software it develops in house. At the time, Apple’s default keyboard, which included 846 emoji, could not be modified or replaced. Apple did not allow apps such as iDiversicons to create alternative keyboards with different emoji, so iPhone users who wanted other emoji could download apps and cut and paste the icons into text messages like an image — a clunky process.

(Tell me again why, for so many people, Apple where a halo???)

Meanwhile, Parrott pitched the Unicode Consortium on the idea of standardizing on more diverse emojis. (The Unicode Consortium is a group of major tech companies that sets the standards for how text characters and emojis are encoded. It makes it possible for me to create an emoji-laden text on my Android phone and send it to the people I know - every last one of them on an iPhone - and have them be able to read it.) She sent a proposal into Unicode, and was asked to come in and meet with them.

One of those attending the 2014 meeting where Parrott presented her ideas was from Apple. Now Apple is not always on the up and up when it comes to dealing with apps and app makers. 

Apple has a long history of incorporating features first found on the App Store or elsewhere and turning them into features built into its operating system. Companies such as Spotify have accused Apple of creating competing services and using its power over its iOS mobile software system to gain a competitive advantage. Companies such as Blix, the maker of email software, have taken Apple to court over similar allegations. (Source: Washington Post)

Nonetheless, Parrott was buoyed by the warm reception she received at Unicode, and especially hyped over an invitation to come meet with Apple. 

Her meeting with Apple went nowhere. Unless you call Apple's finally getting around to incorporating diversity into their emoji catalogue, rendering the iDiversicon app obsolete, somewhere. Parrott is now suing Apple for copyright infringement. Her battle is widely seen as an uphill one. Apple didn't copy her emojis; it just started making their own emojis available in different skin colors. Still, it's hard not to believe that Apple could have treated Katrina Parrott a lot better

It’s surprising that Parrott’s role in the widespread adoption of skin tones for emoji isn’t more well known, said Jennifer 8. Lee, a vice chairman of the emoji subcommittee of Unicode Consortium, the body that approves and standardizes emoji so they can be sent among users with any device or operating system, and in any language. “If she had been a White male from Stanford or MIT in her mid 20s, it’s more likely her company would have been acquired by Apple,” said Lee, who featured Parrott in her documentary, “The Emoji Story.”

Earlier this year, Apple -"which remains overwhelmingly White and Asian" - announced:

...a $100 million racial justice and equity initiative that aims in part to help Black entrepreneurs with start-up boot camps and other opportunities. As part of the initiative, which costs one one-thousandth of what Apple earned in revenue last quarter, the company says it is funding schools such as one in Detroit’s urban center that offers free iPhone coding classes.

The effort is aimed at stopping the “gross injustices and institutional barriers” preventing communities of color from pursuing the “American Dream,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, said in a news release announcing the initiative.

Hmmmm. And there they had Katrina Parrott right there for the asking. 

Parrott is not a technologist. But she's sharp, smart, entrepreneurial and knows how to work and communicate with techies. Surely, Apple could have found a role for this woman. Maybe it's not too late. First, they ought to settle with her. Even if she doesn't have a strong copyright infringement case, she should receive some compensation for bringing forth her idea - only to see Apple grab and run with it. Sure, they would likely have eventually come around to the idea of diverse emojis, but you'd think they would have been more welcoming and less exploitive of Parrott. Just plain blind business stupidity, I guess.

But what they really ought to do is hire her to help with their new diversity initiative. She sounds perfect for the job!