“After four days of confusion and adolescent hand-wringing, Apple finally spoke out about the change of policy that has removed thousands of risqué applications from its iPhone App Store,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“The response came in an interview that senior vice president Phil Schiller gave Jenna Wortham of The New York Times,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “‘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,’ Mr. Schiller said.”
“‘At the end of the day, Apple has a brand to maintain,’ Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, told the Times. ‘And the bottom line is they want that image to be squeaky clean.’ Munster linked the purge to the release of the iPad tablet computer next month, which Apple plans to market for home and school use,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “But neither he nor Schiller could satisfactorily explain why thousands of apps showing bikini clad women were removed, while Playboy and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition were permitted to stay.”
Full article here.
Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider, “As Apple has officially clarified its new ban on ‘overtly sexual content’ in the App Store, one application featuring pictures of women in bikinis — to sell beachwear — found itself removed.”
“Designer swimwear retailer Simply Beach, based in the U.K., was removed from the iPhone and iPod touch App Store last Friday,” Hughes reports. “Andrew Long, managing director of Exploding Phone, the firm responsible for developing the application, spoke with AppleInsider about the situation. He said his company received the same e-mail that Apple sent to other developers, which stated ‘overtly sexual content’ was being removed from the download destination due to “numerous complaints” from customers.”
Hughes reports, “The developer has attempted to contact Apple since last Friday to no avail, but Long feels like the Simply Beach application has been wrongfully removed from the App Store, because it does not feature any sexual content. He said the store is showing off its products, some of which happen to be bikinis. The pictures, he said, are the exact same found on the Simply Beach official Web site, simplybeach.com.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple should take care not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Carl H.” for the heads up.]
Double Standard FTW
I’m stunned by the Apple hypocrisy…
I expect better from Apple, but I may expect too much.
It was probably a complaint by ugly woman who are just jealous that it’s not them and that the ladies in the content are way more beautiful then these ugly beasts !!!!
I, for one, am outraged that Simply Beach’s App was removed.
I looked at the babes and the bikinis and I didn’t see one Camel Toe in the bunch.
Outrageous!
I can respect the parents not wanting their kids to be able to buy and see adult-ish content, but what’s the rating system for if it’s not being utilized properly??
And in regards to the offended women, whatever. Go sit down and be quiet. And like most Americans, go lose some weight and gain a self esteem.
With the quantity of apps that are in the store, there’s something on there that is bound to offend anyone. For instance, there was an app I downloaded that I thought would be helpful and it was full of derogatory and racist commentary about minorities. I’ve seen that one more than one occasion.
What about people who practice religions other than Christianity? Will Apple remove all Christian apps because it offends a Buddhist or a Muslim?
Apple needs to be careful, this, as they say, is a slippery slope.
Did you ever notice that it’s usually the unhappy ugly women that want to make everyone else unhappy, too?
I often read reviewers’ reviews of Apple computers as being ‘sexy’. These particular reviewers must either be quite perverse when it comes to sex or may they just get a computer with a hard drive that vibrates profusely.
I can assure you that if you find any sticky looking fluids on my macbook it will be a soft drink spill and nothing more.
Parents need to be parents.
Too many are just lazy.
Both my kid’s iPod Touches were setup the way I wanted them before they ever saw them. There are many ways to restrict Apps: Allow All, 17+, 12+, 9+ and 4+.
What is so difficult about that?
Apple did the right thing. They have a brand to maintain. If the iPod touch/iPhone/iPad becomes associated with being a smut device that will kill it. Besides, all of that smut and more is available via the internet and there is a fine mobile browser included in the iPhone OS.
Kinda like parents that let there 10 year olds watch Family Guy.
“It’s a cartoon so it must be for kids.”
Idiots
No explanation is needed for removing scum!
Think
Do you think your kids know how to get into preferences to change those settings? Just asking.
Does this mean I can’t use my iPhone/iPad at the beach?
@silverhawk
Only if they can get past the password.
There you have it: the iPhone is a device for women and children.
Next on the removal list: men’s underwear and candy…
I guess parents didn’t believe their kids who told them they needed a iPod Touch so they could check their stock portfolios and use their grocery shopping Apps. Let’s be honest. 90 percent of computer use is porn. The rest is old people sending e-mail to their grand kids.
@JadisOne
Don’t think Apple wants to start that war… they’ll just say… no comment.
Secondly, Apple has contracts with a lot of Christian and Catholic primary and secondary schools. If anything, I would say it’s probably that group that complained to Apple, saying they would like to order in iPod touches but…
… no porn please.
Sorry Nannies, but Apple did NOT have pornography in the App Store. Bikini apps or erotica is NOT porn.
If my memory isn’t failing, didn’t Apple tout “enhanced parental controls” as a major feature when iTunes 9 was released? Why doesn’t Apple turn them on or whatever?
@Think is absolutely correct. if you a parent worried that your poor delicate child will be harmed by being exposed to sexual imagery, take control. Don’t expect Apple or anyone else to do it for you.
Apple also really needs to do an overhaul of the App Store and add more categories and a decent search function. As it is now, it’s unwieldy and time consuming to find things.
I don’t want my kids to accidentally get exposed to those sick, dogmatic, mediaeval, perverted Bible or Jesus apps that seem to be EVERYWHERE on the App Store. That kind of stuff could ruin them for LIFE!
This is what happens when you let FEMINISTS have too much say in your company or society.
I’d like to make a decision on what apps to have, and not have somebody make the decision for me or restrict my options. It’s bad enough that when I choose to have a document “always open” with a selected app, Snow Leopard forgets it after a couple of weeks*. For a variety of reasons, I choose to use Apple’s non-mobile hardware and operating system (six units currently in my household**) but NOT Apple’s apps.
* What next? Docs will only open in Apple apps?***
** My mistake, make that seven.
*** When that happens I’ll switch. In the meantime, I’m rooting for any competitor to give these bozos a wake up call. Unfortunately I don’t expect any to rise above their level of incompetency.
Nothing to do with parents or women. It’s an orchestrated campaign by the radical religious right. The Parents Television Council, who brought us the Janet Jackson Superbowl Wardrobe Malfunction brouhaha, is behind this.
That said, a lot of these apps were kind of juvenile and silly. Not much lost here. Apple can set the tone for their retail experience. There is no need for a magazine rack in the Apple Stores with Hustler and Playboy on display. The problem is they insist on being the only source in town for iPhone/ iPod/ iPad apps.
Plus, what will they do when someone objects to selling Playboy magazine for the iPad reader? Most grocery stores in Kansas and Oklahoma do not carry Playboy because someone protested, usually under the banner of “save the children”, but actually religious conservatism. I hate it when Christian Conservatives use children to advance their agenda.
I like boobs
Apple is a hypocrite for excluding the Simply Beach app while allowing the trashy Playboy and SI Swimsuit apps. I’m boycotting the App Store.
@Think
They could just do a restore which whipes it out.. then just resync their data and they are all set.. no password needed.
Apple needs to solve this stuff ASAP. If they want to be the defacto distribution standard for TV, film, apps, magazines and newspapers, they need to make that rating system simple and effective for average Joe parents. Once they crack that, even porn shouldn’t be an issue. There’s certainly demand. It’s a market that can’t be ignored forever.