Does Apple have Double Standards?
Apple Pulls Over 5,000 Apps Without Warning - Article Date: 2-22-2010
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Apple has dominated tech headlines too much lately, and this week is no exception, as the company has created an uproar by removing over 5,000 apps from its App Store... unexpectedly. The apps removed have been determined to be "too sexy", and much of the uproar has been more about Apple's definition of sexy, and its double standard. Apps containing women in bikinis and even workout clothes have been eliminated while apps from Playboy, FHM Magazine, and the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Issue have remained available, and even promoted on Apple's App Store home page.
After much of the riff had been raised, Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, talked to the New York Times saying, "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." He also indicated that the difference with the Playboy, Sports Illustrated apps, etc. were that they were from well-known companies that were already available in "well-accepted" formats.
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Obviously, the developers of such apps that have been pulled are not happy. It's not hard to understand their beef, as many of them have likely put a significant amount of time and money into creating and maintaining their apps, only to have them pulled without warning (other than the emails they got from Apple as they were being pulled).
Apple reviews apps on a case-by-case basis. "Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them," Apple has said. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple."
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Some people have raised this question: Why is Apple suddenly going "puritanical" (one of the apps was pulled because of a cartoon character in a bikini)? They have blocked apps in the past, but just to yank so many that have already been accepted into the store seems like a sudden change in attitude. Is it coincidence that Apple is readying the release of its much-publicized iPad device, which will run apps from the app store?
Many think it's no coincidence these two things are strongly connected, and some even consider Apple's choice to pull "sexy" apps to be a "smart business decision."
As for the iPad, it's clear that Apple intends to position its new tablet not only as a consumer device for the home, but also as an educational tool to be used by a broad base of ages. Software developers are already designing interactive textbooks for the iPad, according to reports. Again, Apple must squash the impression they have made that the App Store is a haven for smut to increase the odds of classroom sales. A few negative news stories about apps could very well spur many school districts to think twice about adding the iPad as a study tool.
Bottom line: The purge is actually a smart business move on Apple's part, even if it appears prudish to outsiders and developers and everyone else.
Beyond the classroom, Apple may also be worried families would be less likely to purchase the iPad as well. The company's comments regarding complaints from parents seems to suggest this very notion.
Not all complaints have come from concerned parents though. "Developers have been making similar complaints to Apple, but their concerns are also related to the volume of sexually-themed apps, which can represent as many as a third of the apps in certain iTunes App Store categories," says Information Week's Thomas Claburn. "The spam-scale proliferation of these apps ends up making other apps less discoverable."
Others still have pointed out that there is an abundance of R-rated content available through iTunes, both in the form of movies and music. Apple is keeping that stuff around, although that likely goes back to the same point Apple made about "well-known" and "accepted" sources. Many have also pointed out that users can always go to the web browser on their device and access all kinds of "nasty" stuff. Apple doesn't own the web though, so unless Apple wants to start censoring the Internet (God help us), it is going to have a hard time keeping "sexiness" off its devices, even from lesser known sources. Apple can't control that though, but it can control its own App store, and it is doing so.
Meanwhile, Google's Android Market is growing significantly. It is currently in second place just behind Apple's App store in the mobile application stores. Google has a significantly greater percentage of free apps, which could continue to fuel its growth. Perhaps another question is, "Can Apple afford to pull so many apps at a time when its competition is becoming greater than ever in the mobile space? Apple's controlling "Puritanism" could come back to haunt them (God forbid), despite its apparent motives. Evidently, that's a chance the company is willing to take.
