“At the start of last week, all the 20+ iOS apps made by Chinese software company and search engine Qihoo (QIHU) vanished from Apple’s App Store – and they still haven’t been restored,” Steven Millward reports for Tech In Asia. “According to multiple sources in one Chinese media report, Qihoo is in big trouble with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) for systematic abuses of its iOS ecosystem.”

“This is not just about manipulating App Store rankings – which Qihoo was allegedly caught doing last year – but also, it is claimed, for encouraging the jailbreaking of iPhones by the way that Qihoo often makes its apps available as single file downloads that can be loaded by users with jailbroken Apple devices,” Millward reports. “Aside from the suggestion that Qihoo’s apps damaged Apple’s ecosystem, it is thought that Qihoo’s iOS software also made use of banned APIs, and were engaged in repeated attempts to rig App Store rankings.”

Millward reports, “In addition, the QQ Tech source suggests that the removal of Qihoo’s iOS apps was done manually by Apple – not caused by a mere automatically triggered takedown – and therefore amounts to a special investigation into the apps by the Cupertino company. Whereas an automatic takedown can be resolved within a few days, as happened to Qihoo last February, a manual removal by Apple can take longer to sort out, and there’s apparently no timescale for this process. The article claims that Qihoo’s CFO has even dashed to the US to help speed up the restoration of the apps to the App Store.”

Read more in the full article here.