∞ Gruber on Apple and the sex app purge

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John Gruber posted an interesting article tonight on the reasons Apple chose to go after overtly sexual apps last week. What’s it not about is money, according to Gruber. What it is about is branding.

I think what Apple was getting squeamish about wasn’t the sexy apps themselves, but the cheesiness that the sexy apps (and their prominence in best selling lists) was bestowing upon the general feel and vibe of the App Store.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Shawn King and I discussed this on Your Mac Life last night and I said something similar. Playboy may have an app, but some of these bikini app developers submit 1,000 or more apps that basically do the same thing.

Check out Gruber’s take on the situation.


  • tewha

    Neven Mrgan has a good take on it here:
    http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/412064300/not-in-the…

    I think Mrgan's take plus keyword spamming is a main reason for this.

  • Lucas

    as noted some of these folks were basically app spammers. and that's a cause for removal right there. 500 of the purged apps were reported by the same group.

    and there's another aspect to this branding issue. I think the complaints were real. and probably fairly numerous. and it made Apple Legal worry that someone would file an Obscenity suit against the company. Distributing obscene materials is a serious legal issue and even if Apple was found innocent, the press about the suit would be very bad. Way worse than the press about the purge or how a few legit apps were caught in what was likely an automated search and pull system. Playboy, Hooters and SI have just as much to lose in an obscenity case so they are careful to stay on the passing side of the line. not so for some of these other apps.

  • aep528

    John Gruber's post is heavily flawed. He argues for several paragraphs against MG Seigler's comments regarding Safari being an avenue for sexually explicit content, but he completely ignores MG's comments about iTunes. To correct John's post, iTunes is the representation of a physical store, while the App Store is but a single department, alongside Music, TV, Movies, and soon periodicals and books.

    His Barnes and Noble argument is equally flawed, since you may not be able to buy Hustler, but the Marguis de Sade's writings are available and in stock, as well as available for download. So, yes, B&N does sell sexually explicit material. And while I have no proof, I would wager that B&N doesn't stock more sexually explicit magazines for fear of theft rather than any concern for their corporate image or fear of kids looking at them.

  • sdfsdfs

    Man, gruber is such an apologist.

  • Ian

    To put this in what I think is a proper perspective – here is a phrase that highlights the situation to its extreme:

    First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
    Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me. – Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) first mention on January 6, 1946 Frankfurt / Main

  • Charlie Choo

    Gruber is a grubby, apologist, socialist, liberal scumbag. Won’t allow comments on his site DF because is an apologetic spineless moonbat. How dare he stand up for the military guy who sold/leaked classified gov/mil documents to Wikileaks. I’m happy that piece of shit is being “tortured” as Gruber puts it, while in the military brig in VA. Let that shit rot for all I care. Gruber, do us all a favor and get off your soapbox and just move to France already. You disgust me.