You may have heard that Apple removed over 4,000 sexy apps from the App Store. Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller explained in the NY Times the reason behind the ban:
It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.
I think it’s very hypocritical from Apple to do that, especially because they still allow apps such as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit or Play Boy. Why keep those apps then?
When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said.
So I guess parents won’t be as upset at what their kids can see on those 2 apps because they come from well-known companies. I fail to understand the reasoning behind this…
Next step for Apple might be to ban Google or even Safari from the iPhone because a simple search on Google Images brings up the following results.
I could have gone much more graphical with the image but you get my point.
I understand the App Store is Apple’s own playground and that they can do whatever they want there. What’s bugging me though is the dictatorship they have put in place. Not allowing sexy apps in the first place would have been one thing, but removing thousands of sexy apps that were perfectly ok a few days ago is just a Hitler-like move.
Whether you like it or not, it’s just the way it is. Personally, I really don’t care about these sexy apps but I think it is scary how Apple can change the rules at will. But what are we going to do? Meh, we’ll just write a blog post about it, and let it go, because that’s all we can do. Once again, I feel like Apple has stabbed iPhone users and developers in the back.
What do you think?