REJECTED: Holopic (for containing photos of women)
Women, they are *dangerous*. Well … allegedly, that’s Apple’s current stance on anything that could be conceivably using images of women as a sales tactic. Holopic is an interesting app that creates a very good simulation of 3D photographs on the iPhone screen. Sadly, they chose to include images of scantily-clad women in their demos:
Unfortunately the developer spent a bunch of money getting attractive models into bikinis and then into the app right before Apple put the kibosh on nearly every app with so much as a bare ankle exposed (let alone cleavage).
What’s really going on here? Is this a terrible miscarriage of justice, with Apple banning a non-adult app for (perceived adult content)?
AFAICS … this is an app that has real, substantial value without ever going near adult content (unlike, say, Wobble / iJiggle / iBoobs etc) – but the developer *chose* to market it using titillating pictures (*).
On the one hand, they don’t need sex to sell this app. I’m sure they can get lots of attention (and sales) without playing the sex angle.
On the other, we all know that sex sells – and given the poor state of Apple’s iTunes for browsing and previewing apps, of course they should have gone for the strongest possible marketing angles.
It’s a tough situation for developers. With Apple’s “we change the rules on a whim, with zero warning, zero explanation, and NAH NAH NAH I’M NOT LISTENING TO YOU GO AWAY YOU STINKY DEVELOPER” attitude, it’s really a gamble everytime you make any strategic decision in app-development.
(*) – NB: I’m going on 2nd info here, can’t find a primary source, but it sounds like it was the usual “women in bikinis” fare that has been seen frequently on the app store over the past 12 months.
