Apple’s always been a bit of a prude, but as they prepare to launch their iPad, they’re starting to outdo themselves.
Will they outdo themselves into their own undoing? Unlikely, but sometimes it sure seems like they’re trying.
Wired reported recently that Apple had briefly added an “explicit” category to the drop-down menu that developers use to categorize their submissions for the App Store, leading many to think that they were creating a red light district.
But it was all just a tease. It was gone almost as soon as it arrived, though industrious types managed to snag screenshots proving its ephemeral existence. It seems that Apple had second thoughts about getting into the smut business, at least for now.
Instead, Apple has chosen to enter the business of full-on censorship, banning adult-oriented apps that qualifies as “overtly sexual content” — yet retaining sexy apps from Playboy and Sports Illustrated magazines. Apple’s vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, told The New York Times that the action was in response to complaints filed by concerned parents and women who found some content “degrading and objectionable.”
So it appears that some smut is better, or at least more valuable, than other smut. Many developers lost more than half their content in last week’s wielding of the ban hammer — but they’d be small potatoes, so what’s the harm? Apple probably figures. It’s just another way of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Pornography has never been part of the App Store — instead, only partial nudity was tolerated, and parental controls made available. Ridiculous vulgarity apparently doesn’t apply: The iFart App remains, for example. So only the topic of human procreation remains off-limits.
What may be going on is that Apple hopes the iPad, with its tablet computing possibilities and e-book capability, will catch on for use in schools and the business world.
Where a good fart joke is always appreciated.
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