Apple Boots Swimsuit Store App; Insists Complaints Led To App Store "Racy App" Ban
As you probably know, Apple is purging apps that are somewhat racy from the App Store, including those, according to a developer, that include women in bikinis. Yet the Sports Illustrated app is still in the App Store, and we smell favoritism.
Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, pretty much confirmed that in statements he made to the New York Times. He said:
While there is obviously some measure of truth to that statement, some of the apps, such as Wobble (demo below), which have a sort of racy component to them, but don't even specifically provide racy photos in them. Strangely, also, new apps continue to be approved that should be banned, such as Adult Sex Trick, which appears to have been updated just yesterday.
At the same time, as far as why they made this change, Schiller said:
At any rate, it's not as though iTunes itself doesn't have plenty of racy material among its videos or even its music. Mobile Safari is able to access plenty of stuff on the web, as well, though famously, not Flash.
Phil Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, pretty much confirmed that in statements he made to the New York Times. He said:
“The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format."Ah, we see. By the way, the Playboy app is still in the App Store as well.
While there is obviously some measure of truth to that statement, some of the apps, such as Wobble (demo below), which have a sort of racy component to them, but don't even specifically provide racy photos in them. Strangely, also, new apps continue to be approved that should be banned, such as Adult Sex Trick, which appears to have been updated just yesterday.
At the same time, as far as why they made this change, Schiller said:
“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.”OK, so they are not so upset with Playboy or SI. We get it!
At the same time, since swimsuits are banned, or at least bikinis, an app for a swimsuit store has been booted from the App Store as well.
It's an unfortunate truism that a store selling swimsuits would probably have bikinis. As Gerrard Dennis, managing director of The Simply Group, which operates Simply Beach and six other online stores said, "The e-mail [from Apple] arrived straight to a junk mail folder on Friday and to be honest we thought it was a spam joke. We then checked iTunes to find the app had in fact been removed. It seems like political correctness gone mad. It’s just women in bikinis, swimsuits and kaftans."
The developer of the Simply Beach application, Exploding Phone, has resubmitted the app to the App Store, this time with an age restriction, hoping the app will be restored. Andrew Long, managing director of Exploding Phone said, "Being optimistic, maybe a new set of eyes at Apple will realize that the app is a store selling beach clothes and approve it. But we'll have to wait and see."
At any rate, it's not as though iTunes itself doesn't have plenty of racy material among its videos or even its music. Mobile Safari is able to access plenty of stuff on the web, as well, though famously, not Flash.
Speaking of which, watch that Wobble demo below:
