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Opinions on Apple removing “objectionable content” from App Store
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/technology/23apps.html
Apple is walking a fine line here, and I agree with the article that this is a move to clean up the image of the App Store before they push the iPad for the education and home/gaming markets.
The only problem I have (and developers have always had) is the abitrary and unannounced nature of these changes. I realize that it is well within their rights to remove apps on a whim, but it certainly raises questions when mature apps that were available for 6 months are all of the sudden pulled.
My guess is Apple made a calculated decision that the number of happy parents will outweigh the number of pissed off seedy developers looking to make a quick buck off of peep-show photo apps. And those happy parents have $$ to spend…
Interesting quote from Phil regarding why Sports Illustrated/Playboy apps remain:
“The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format”
I think this will end well for Apple in the marketplace, even as they continue to build animosity in dev/open software circles.
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This is all about the iPod touch. Those are likely being bought by parents for their teen and pre-teen offspring. Apple need to ensure that their image is squeaky clean. Let all the jiggling breast apps go to Android?there are bigger things at stake like winning sales of handheld gaming machines over Nintendo.
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Throughout all my years of investing I’ve found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling. The big money was made in the waiting. ? Jesse Livermore
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This is all about the iPod touch. Those are likely being bought by parents for their teen and pre-teen offspring. Apple need to ensure that their image is squeaky clean. Let all the jiggling breast apps go to Android?there are bigger things at stake like winning sales of handheld gaming machines over Nintendo.
Google apparently feels ok to have porns. Few years ago in Las Vegas, Google got a guy cracking indecent jokes during a presentation. Google could be thinking that Android could be successful just like VHS because of porns.
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Google apparently feels ok to have porns. Few years ago in Las Vegas, Google got a guy cracking indecent jokes during a presentation. Google could be thinking that Android could be successful just like VHS because of porns.
You can still get porn on the iPod touch/iPhone. In fact, as the fuss over Flash highlighted, most of the major porn players are leading the pack where content delivery to mobile devices is concerned. This fuss is about Apple not wanting to tarnish their brand.
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Throughout all my years of investing I’ve found that the big money was never made in the buying or the selling. The big money was made in the waiting. ? Jesse Livermore
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The US is a country where children can see the SAW movies but parents are scandalized by the sight of Janet Jackson’s boob for a fraction of a second.
Apple pulling the seedy apps from the AppStore is a symptom of deeper issues.
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I don’t think it’s right at this point of the game for Apple to be selectively removing apps. There are already people that have worked hard and spent time and money to meet Apple’s approval, to only get shut out. I personally do not support the applications being questioned, but believe that if Apple offers it, then they should have a category for explicit content. Seems as though that’s what may happen in the long rung, making this issue a moot point.
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FlipFriddle
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The US is a country where children can see the SAW movies but parents are scandalized by the sight of Janet Jackson’s boob for a fraction of a second.
Apple pulling the seedy apps from the AppStore is a symptom of deeper issues.
Absolutely. It’s completely messed up around here; Puritan hypocrisy run rampant, with a little Nanny-state, Think Of The Children thrown in. Prime time shows filled with gory autopsies (CSI) and loads of murder but censure and fines if you say sh*t or show someone’s butt on TV. Stupid.
It looks like Apple is adding an “Explicit” category to the App store. That should satisfy developers, and they’ll probably be able to put out an update that allows Parental Controls to deal with it.
And besides, kids don’t HAVE to have an iTunes account. If the parents think its getting abused they can always take it away. You know, actual PARENTING…
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Less is More (more or less).
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The next question then becomes, what is considered explicit? Will those “explicit” apps show up on Top 25 lists?
If Apple creates a new category (and I think they should), then it will probably have it’s own Top 25 lists, which will be completely separate from all other apps. This will make Parental Controls much easier. Simply turn that category on/off. Easy as that.
Edit: Or if they add an “explicit” flag, like for music, then those can just be filtered out when parental controls are turned on, and show up in all lists when not moderated.
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Explicit Category added thanks to sensiblethoughts at Sanity for the link
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Awhile back was in the video store, in front of me was a typical Sloane Ranger Mom who was renting “Wild Things” Her young teenage Son got all excited and said “I want to watch that!” Mom got all bent out of shape and emphatically stated how it was an Adult Movie, and for junior to go pick something else.
So the Kid come back with the worst kind of Lurid Slasher, Murder, Death, Kill Movie and Mom doesn’t turn a hair.
And I was thinking Wow! To my my mind Mom could have said something like ok you can watch with us, but afterwards we are going to have “The Talk.”
But as FripFriddle mentioned that would involve actual errrrr, like, Parenting or something…..Signature
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The US is a country where children can see the SAW movies but parents are scandalized by the sight of Janet Jackson’s boob for a fraction of a second.
Apple pulling the seedy apps from the AppStore is a symptom of deeper issues.
I’ve said for a long time (since the South Park app was rejected) that I wish Apple nothing but grief in its mission of deciding what is OK for its customers to do and see with devices it makes. I don’t think grief even matters to Apple so long as the stock price stays above $200.
So I’m going to amend my wish. My wish is now that this policy brings nothing but grief to Apple fanatics. In your hearts, you know this was wrong. And not just tactically wrong, but something very deep in Apple’s presentation to the world, something very wrong with how it treats customers and market partners that got it here. And yet, you think despite the misstep, Apple will eventually get it right and this will be a minor blip. Perhaps. But by not taking a stand against it, by saying only the geeks care or only the perverts care, you’re increasing the probability that one day, Steve Jobs will spit on something that’s important to you. Ironically, few people will care.
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As I said elsewhere, after viewing the latest round of ?GoDaddy? TV commercials my wife wanted to make sure that none of our dozen or so domains is registered there. She said she didn?t want any of them associated with a ?porn? registery. The attitude I see in the commercials is one I?d expect if the company were run by a bunch of 16 year old boys. As Queen Elizabeth once said, ?We are not amused.? Based on this I think Apple is doing the right thing.
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sleepygeek
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The App store is a store, and stores by definition select what they offer. I find it OK that Apple is active in responding to customer complaints about products in its store; there’s clearly something to be worked out here, so maintaining a low level of developer/customer annoyance while experimenting is quite acceptable. Longer term, I would expect Apple to provide a way to manage the provenance of apps while having them coming from non-Apple stores. In-app purchases don’t appear as app store line items. Apple could deliver and provenance-manage apps that are actually sold in a different store. I can see Apple adding (third party) web stores at some point, and purchase fulfilment (covertly) performed by Apple. Or maybe it might be a bit like Amazon partners.
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DawnTreader
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I spent a number of years as a finance executive in the music and motion picture industries.
Each day the staff had to make decisions about product and the talent that created the product, whether or not to sign particular artists or groups, how much to invest in advertising, promotion, marketing, etc.
A common consideration in decisions was the genre of the music, the branding of the label and whether or not an artist (without a judgement on the music) fit both the short-term and long-term interests of the enterprise. One could view these decisions based on the mentioned criteria to be good business. Some might consider it economic censorship. The fact is enterprises make decisions daily about products taking into consideration the company’s desired positioning and the value of a brand, whether it be dish soap, music, food items, etc. For example, you don’t see the folks at Scholastic hawking calendars of scantily clad people even though some people might find the calendars appealing. The folks at Johnson & Johnson aren’t hawking “adult toys” in their product portfolios and you won’t see LL Bean attempting to compete with Victoria’s Secret on underwear selections.
In the same way Disney’s Pixar studio won’t be releasing R-rated content under the Pixar name and Apple, a primary supplier of hardware and services to the education market, has every right to limit the type and style of content it offers through its online stores.
Apple has every right to make decisions based on what it considers to be the long-term and short-term interests of the company. Some things don’t fit the scheme. The apps Apple removed from the app store in my view have no real value whatsoever to the company’s short-term or long-term future. It’s good business and yes, it’s a form of economic censorship based on Apple’s desire to brand and image its products and services. Similar decisions are made every day at enterprises across the country and around the world.
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I think Apple’s made a pretty reasonable compromise, and if it does elect to add an “Explicit” section, that’ll mostly mollify that subgroup of the user base who wants this content available in app form.
Apple’s still kind of pinballing around when it comes to “objectionable” content, approval procedures, etc. for the App Store. Heck, I still run across iTunes songs without “explicit” labels with some expletives/etc. in the previews). But really, only a few things matter. Apple already has the critical mass. The vast majority of App Store users don’t really care about Apple’s foibles here and there. And most developers seem to be happy.
I’d also venture a guess that most reasonable people realize that the idea of a mobile app marketplace (of this scale, anyway) is very new, very different territory. Also, no mobile device has EVER had such a staggering selection of programs to choose from. By extension, no one company has ever had to monitor, evaluate and reevaluate so many programs with this kind of business model. A certain amount of mistakes and missteps is to be expected. Apple seems to be attentive to customer/developer feedback, and if it does commit a significant mistake, said customers/developers will most likely help set Apple back on track. The market has spoken and it’s still solidly in Apple’s favor.
[ Edited: 25 February 2010 02:48 AM by Mav ]Signature
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No affect on Apple.
If a developer gets mad because he can’t get his sex apps there, go to Google and do it. Apple, its shareholders, its customers, developer community could not care less.
This is fodder for journalists. Disemploy 98% of all journalists and it will have zero effect on anything. They are just repackaging what other journalists wrote, and complaining about the same things over and over again.
