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Over 5000 'Overtly Sexual' Apps Pulled from App Store (And Counting)

Sunnyburno said:
Apple have now gotten pathetic! they make me bloody angry! They won't support any open source community or development and now there taking the one thing all us men love away... girls with big boobs in skimpy clothes!

Apple you make me sick! Great devices but you have everything planned out wrong. in the end your just loosing proffit though!
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You mean the way they're not supporting FreeBSD by filtering code back into it constantly, or they way they're not supporting developers by offering a viable App Store develop for, or the way they're not supporting Web Standards such as WebKit, or the way . . . .

If you want porn, use your browser. WTF is a porn "app" anyway? LOL
 
Good?

I am actually okay with this (which surprises me). I don't want the app store to turn into a one-stop porn shop.::)
 
CFreymarc said:
Good riddance! Most of these were nothing but hard-coded slide show apps of female model stock photography with a one trick pony user interface.

You want sexual apps, there are plenty of adult smart-phone portals out there already. Market wise, you make any title adult or pornographic, you tend to loose 80% of a consumer marketplace. I'm sure Apple is looking at this factor.
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do you know what is the yearly revenue for the porn industry? i think you should probably do some recalculating.
 
Ways to get around it.

ugp said:
Well my thought was more so on magazines because look at Playboy. I am sure a lot of people would subscribe to a digital release of it. Makes it more private in receiving it. And it would be a legitimate App. Playboy in my opinion is very tasteful and always has been. It's not hardcore like others. But even so they are top selling magazines in the industry.

I wouldn't mind doing an age verification through Drivers License or something. But then again a lot of people would be upset by that as well right?
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Not only would people be upset with that, but I am sure kids would find a way around it.
 
ugp said:
Maybe a purging process. Say an App doesn't get a certain amount of downloads over a specified time. Like say 6 months doesn't hit X amount... then remove and purge it out.

Don't products that don't sell get removed off the shelves to make room for newer items that maybe will sell. If they don't sell then they won't sell in the future.
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"Room" is not a problem, as the App Store is not your local Best Buy. As for low purchases, I disagree. Example: I am thinking of one day creating a Reference App for firefighters. I would have to market it in fire magazines, trade shows, etc, but even still my market would be a small niche of course. First they would have to have an iPhone and second they would have to want my app, so if I only could sell a couple 1000 downloads, by your plan my app would get nixed right?
 
bludodge said:
"Room" is not a problem, as the App Store is not your local Best Buy. As for low purchases, I disagree. Example: I am thinking of one day creating a Reference App for firefighters. I would have to market it in fire magazines, trade shows, etc, but even still my market would be a small niche of course. First they would have to have an iPhone and second they would have to want my app, so if I only could sell a couple 1000 downloads, by your plan my app would get nixed right?
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True. It has pros and cons I guess.
 
pr5owner said:
is the spike related to the "useless" apps or the "sexual content" apps being removed?
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Potayto, potarto.

*LTD* said:
You mean the way they're not supporting FreeBSD by filtering code back into it constantly, or they way they're not supporting developers by offering a viable App Store develop for, or the way they're not supporting Web Standards such as WebKit, or the way . . . .

If you want porn, use your browser. WTF is a porn "app" anyway? LOL
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I'm going to treat it as if they were being ironic. Particularly with the use of the word "there" instead of "they're", and because of all the patently obvious points you mentioned.
 
Darkroom said:
do you know what is the yearly revenue for the porn industry? i think you should probably do some recalculating.
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I don't think he means porn is not big business, because it is in the places it is sold, etc. but as big as it is, it isn't lucrative for businesses as a whole to add it to their goods. You don't see sex dolls being sold at Dillard's. I think several years ago even 7-11 stores dropped even the soft core stuff.
 
About time! They were spam

It drove me up the wall that these apps were flooding the apps store. They'd become nothing more than iPhone spam.

I downloaded one or two myself, but they were crap. Very much junk apps that don't belong on the App Store, whether overtly sexual or not. (Apple needs chuck out quite a few other poorly designed apps)

Really, if you want to carry pictures of hot chicks or guys on your iPhone, download some decent ones and create your own library in your photo albums.

You won't have to pay and you'll get the hottest girls or guys coz they'll be the ones you like
 
*LTD* said:
You mean the way they're not supporting FreeBSD by filtering code back into it constantly, or they way they're not supporting developers by offering a viable App Store develop for, or the way they're not supporting Web Standards such as WebKit, or the way . . . .

If you want porn, use your browser. WTF is a porn "app" anyway? LOL
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Its the DeviantArt application (If one existed). :p
 
Compile 'em all said:
schweet! Hotix Studios were releasing around 15 apps per day. Apple removed them completely (not just their apps).
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I don't see this kind of sweat shop application process be eliminated be it related to sex or not.

Creating nearly similar or slightly modified applications and pushing them over and over is cluttering up the space.

I don't know what the rules are for similar apps and such, but given the mechanisms to do upgrades within now, there is zero reason for all this app spam we see.

It is not possible for anybody to push out 15 useful and unique and tested apps a day.
 
I'm glad they're removing some of the most egregious offenders as far as 'app spam' goes. I'd love for them to continue doing that.

I'm not terribly impressed by removing all 'adult' content, as that's going too far on the 'moral guardians' scale. Or maybe they're just trying to extend the reality distortion field...
 
friendster-bound

hey apple, remember what happened to friendster when they tried to enforce harsh moral standards?
 
ugp said:
Maybe a purging process. Say an App doesn't get a certain amount of downloads over a specified time. Like say 6 months doesn't hit X amount... then remove and purge it out.

Don't products that don't sell get removed off the shelves to make room for newer items that maybe will sell. If they don't sell then they won't sell in the future.
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I think sooner or later Apple might need to adapt this model. I understand that the App Store makes developers money and everyone wants a part of it, but with almost 140,000 apps now in the store, their are too many version of the same app and trying to find that one good app has become like finding a needle in a hay stack.

I no longer go looking for apps, most of my favorite apps I have was either a recommendation from a friend or I read a review on Touch Arcade or TWiT pick of the week.
 
nagromme said:
Their definition is overly broad—or even arbitrary: that game that was pulled was highly-rated in TouchArcade’s review. It had a style that parodied B-movies, including a (non-nude) character in skimpy attire. Big deal—it had a content rating to keep people away who would be offended.

http://toucharcade.com/2010/02/10/daisy-maes-alien-buffet-is-open-for-business/
WARNING: SFWUYWA (Safe For Work Unless You Work at Apple).

Content ratings already allow people not to see these apps if they don’t want to. (Other than that game, I haven’t heard of a banned app I’d care to see—but I’d rather make that call myself, and let developers who worked hard on a game/app not have the rules changed out from under their feet.) Maybe Apple needed to do something, but they did it wrong.

(And what about movies, cable TV shows song lyrics, and music videos? What’s next for iTunes censorship?)
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Obviously whenever you do something on such a large scale, some collateral damage will happen, and those few apps that believe they should not have been removed should appeal their case. I suspect some will get allowed back in.

However, in a case like this, it makes more sense to go big and wide, and then let those who might be on the border ask back in then the reverse.
 
bludodge said:
I'd like to know the definition of "useless" apps. i'd be careful on that one. There may be 100 measurement conversion apps, but if each is working for someone, then they would not be useless. I think the rating system should amount to something so as a buyer you can decide if they are useless or not by reading about them. I wish there was more filters, and a better way to sort this all out. It seems the technology is there for that to be the case.
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I don't want a judgment on useless apps myself. I just want to see software producers be limited on creating similar apps. I don't want to see one basic template with 50 different skins on it, essentially to have 50 different apps.

I think anyone who wants to make a measurement conversion app should be able to do it. I just don't want one guy making an app that does US measurement, english measurement, another for metric system etc... I want to see more consolidation and less cloning.
 
Its amazing the prudishness amongst people willing to give up all forms of expression and allow their lives to be controlled by others. :rolleyes:

If an app is useless no one will download it and it won't show up on popular lists, if it does, its obviously of value to someone. This is just plain blatant censorship and nothing less.

The more I seem from Apple of late - Flash, and this, etc... as much as I like some of their products, its definitely making me consider moving away and no longer recommending anyone buy Macs, etc cause they should just do good business, and not try to tell us how to live our lives. The libertarian in me is totally outraged.
 
Apple removes porn apps in an effort to clean up the App Store a bit and live up to their positive reputation, and people are complaining??

Gimme a break.
 
marksman said:
I don't see this kind of sweat shop application process be eliminated be it related to sex or not.

Creating nearly similar or slightly modified applications and pushing them over and over is cluttering up the space.

I don't know what the rules are for similar apps and such, but given the mechanisms to do upgrades within now, there is zero reason for all this app spam we see.

It is not possible for anybody to push out 15 useful and unique and tested apps a day.
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What I don't understand is isn't there an application process? Why would Apple in the first place approve an app and then one week later (or in the case of one company that does 40+ a day) allows the same people to submit the same thing again, as a variant? Apple should look at every application and see if they just did the same thing. Right? I mean the application process should catch some of this junk? No need for a company to submit 10 "measurement conversion" apps. If that is what is going on it should stop.

I am wondering how much of this junk Apple let get through so it could just brag about the amount of apps out there? Anyone thought of that? Now that they by far are ahead of the competition, it looks like they are trying to cull the mess.
 
eh, most of those apps are useless. I do however think I'm old enough to judge for myself. I'm fairly certain I don't need Apple to shield my eyes from boobies. I can't wait for itunes censored movies and music!!!!!
 
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