Marco.org

Dan Moren reports for Macworld that Apple sent this email to the developer of iBoobs:

Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.

We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.

On one level, I like this: these apps clearly violate the spirit while tiptoeing around the letter of the App Store’s policies. And there are tons of apps like this. They cheapen the store, tarnish its image, and make it difficult for other apps to get noticed.

But the arbitrary policy change bothers me. Apple decided in the past to allow these apps, so they were developed in large quantities and sold in even larger quantities. Apple sat back, let that happen, counted them in their boasted app numbers, and took their 30%. To change their mind about it now reduces my (already low) confidence in Apple to apply fair and consistent policies to the App Store.

Given all of that, I believe the App Store will be better without these apps, so I’d concur with their decision¹. This is one of those difficult decisions that leaders of censors and gatekeepers must make, accepting any negative feedback as a cost of being leaders, for the good of their domains.