As iPhone purged its store of all adult orientated related applications, developers have expressed anger over the way in which it has been done. Whilst thousands of apps have been purged, others including Playboy’s software remained, causing many to hit out a seemingly biased decision.
Responding to claims that they had taken it upon themselves to remove the programmes Apple said that they had acted after customer complaints were received. Senior vice president of product marketing for the firm, Phil 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.” However, when questioned over the process of deciding which applications were purged Mr Schiller admitted that “well known” firms had remained.
It has caused outrage to many developers, with Australian company ChilliFresh angry that their ‘Wobble’ software was banned. Advertised as being able to wobble a picture of women’s breasts, developer Jon Atherton said “I’m now worried the eco-system is run by puritans and is not fair to all players. And worst of all it is not a secure source of income. It can drop to close to zero if they decide to change the rules. On Friday evening we got an e-mail out of the blue which basically said, thanks very much but we don’t want you any more. Apple said it was removing all overtly sexual apps,” he added saying that their daily revenue had now dropped from £320 per day to just £5.
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From MiKandi’s perspective, it’s not just about “overtly sexual” apps. It’s about creating an open environment that treats all developers like adults. It takes a lot of work, money and time to build a successful app, and we believe developers deserve more notice and users should be able to purchase the apps that they desire on their phones.