Apple withholding promo codes for 17+ iPhone apps
Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away.
(Credit:
Apple)
That's the way some developers are feeling after Apple began refusing to give developers promo codes for iPhone applications rated 17+.
Apple allows its iPhone developers to request up to 50 promotional codes for their apps when they are uploaded to the App Store. The promo codes allow developers to do things like market their apps by providing codes to media outlets, according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
The codes were welcomed by developers, who were forced to build separate ad-hoc versions of their apps in order to give versions away. Even with the Apple imposed four-week time limit, the promo codes served a very important purpose.
With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, Apple implemented a rating system for apps it sells in the App Store. This allows users to adjust their parental controls on the iPhone, restricting the use and ability to download objectionable content.
You may think that objectionable content in an iPhone app would be limited to pornography, but it's not. Under the new rules, any application that contains a built-in Web browser are also rated 17+ because they have access to the Internet.
As Ars Technica points out, some apps on the store like Wobble iBoobs is not rated, and the classic first person shooter, Doom, is rated 12+. However, e-book reader Eucalyptus is rated 17+ because you can search the Internet and access the Kama Sutra.
Apple defines the 17+ rating as:
Applications in this category may also contain frequent and intense offensive language; frequent and intense cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence; and frequent and intense mature, horror, and suggestive themes; plus sexual content, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs which may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.
Obviously, Apple still has some work to do to satisfy developers.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. A guitar player for 20 years, Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to write and record songs on a Macintosh with Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Jim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
Personally I don't know any of the 300 million Americans, but I do know it's a country of great diversity built up with immigrants from Mexico, Spain, Africa, Italy, UK, Germany, Japan - in fact from just about every corner of the earth. I'll bet at least a few are loud and aggressive but a whole bunch more are decent human beings.
Not sure which country you come from but I now know at least one ignorant, racist person from there.
from Microsoft and are switching to Apple in droves.
Your right about that, see these stories: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10277303-37.html?tag=mncol;mlt_related and http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10281042-37.html?tag=hotTopicsBody.1
Apple may as well pull the plug and give the money, what little of it still remains, back to the stock holders.
What's the world coming to?
This rule is particularly ridiculous as they are basing the rating on an app's ability to access internet content when the iPhone itself includes a browser that allows you to do just that. It seems unbalanced to expect iPhone developers to have to accept limitations when the device itself is positioned as an internet access device. It's a bit like giving with one hand and taking with the other.
"Apple allows its iPhone developers to request up to 50 promotional codes for their apps when they are uploaded to the App Store. The promo codes allow developers to do things like market their apps by providing codes to media outlets, "
The business success of the AppStore is currently emulating that of the early-era AOL, in that it is a smashing success. Time will tell if the AppStore's success continues to follow AOL's trajectory, with early success followed by an eventual crash-and-burn when better, less restrictive competition emerges.
We don't have all the facts. We don't see all the things the decision makers are seeing. They aren't idiots. They know certain things will give bad PR and yet they still choose to do them. Whine and complain people. It doesn't really matter that much.
I like choice. I like to try several apps, and use the one I like best. It is not a matter of one or another having more features, it is a matter of, among other things, user interface.
I've used several mobile browsers on other platforms, and Safari is nowhere near my favorite. I wish there were more choices.
If your attitude were universal, every piece of entertainment and every piece of software would be rated G.
Children need protection, but adults deserve freedom of choice.
"Apple allows its iPhone developers to request up to 50 promotional codes for their apps when they are uploaded to the App Store. The promo codes allow developers to do things like market their apps by providing codes to media outlets, "
The content of my device is my business, and not theirs.
- by shanefreely July 27, 2009 9:56 AM PDT
- I remember reading how the developer of Naughty loaded dice had a ton of trouble with apple over this. First apple rejected them because their sex dice app has a secret menu so that the dice can be controlled, and then finally accepted but not allowed to promote themselves with promo codes.
- Reply to this comment
-
(29 Comments)http://cultofmac.com/q-a-how-sex-game-apps-get-approved-by-apple/