Remember, earlier this month when we wrote about the upskirt app that Apple deemed kosher, while at the same time banning a satirical Someecards app from the App Store? Yeah, we may have found an even better example of Apple’s hilarious hypocrisy.
Truth is, it wasn’t hard to find. The app called “Asian Boobs” is a top seller right now in the App Store. So what is it? Well, the title says it all: It’s an app that features the breasts of Asian women. Lots of them. Over 2,500 of them. And actually you can double that, for each breast in each picture. That’s a lot of boobs.
The description of the $0.99 app is also classy:
Photos of sexy asian girls with BIG BOOBS, 100+ galleries and 2500+ photos, updated regularly. Japanese girls, Korean girls, Chinese girls, Taiwanese girls, models, stewardesses, nurses, school girls, teachers, bikini girls, sexy girls and more.
Glad they squeezed the all-important “sexy girls” in there.
Again, to be clear: I’m all for Apple allowing apps like this in the App Store assuming they’re appropriately labels as 17+ (which this one is). The girls aren’t nude (Apple still doesn’t allow those except when it accidentally does), but the boobage is everywhere — as are the ass shots and crotch shots. Pure iPhone fun.
The problem is that Apple is rejecting apps, like Someecards, which are also labeled 17+ — for satire. Apple didn’t seem to like that the app poked fun at public figures like Roman Polanski and yes, Hitler.
It’s just beyond ridiculous that upskirt apps and apps dedicated to boobs are fine, but satire is not. Maybe the majority of app testers are grumpy but creepy old men, I don’t know.
Find Asian Boobs here for $0.99. Find Someecards app nowhere. Because Apple is ridiculous with these rules.
I’d demand a refund if I bought that for big boobs and got those boobs.
Shouldn’t someone point out that “Asian Boobs” is, by definition satirical? That might help out the someecards app right there…
I believe it’s a matter of free speech. Asian boobs also have a chance despite their cute size
well.. you would be quite surprised my friend.
but they are cute.
No, there are plenty of large Asian boobs… they just happen to be on large Asian women.
Dave, you really have no idea. There are many big boobed Asians, and Japan isn’t the only place to find them. In addition, most are NOT big women. Thai, Filipina, Indonesian, Malay… Open your eyes (and Google Image Search) and stop stereotyping because of your narrow view.
Feminists lost the battle long back. Oh man, this MG is very much typical liberal, with all his anti-sexist posts, he wants to save the world from evil. Arrington fire this guy for god’s sake.
The things we do in the name of research, eh MG?
I know. Tough life.
were you directly in charge of photo selection, or was that more of a team effort?
one man job. actually kind of a rush job, I bet there are much better ones.
It’s some type of *job* alright.
Probably a one hand job too
ew, you guys. ewwwww!
i guess it’s friday.
Someone is upset they cannot find this app in the Android Market…
I learned in my most recent call with Apple to get one of my apps approved that there is a secret nipple ratio and that it’s all based on quantitative assessments of the images in the app. A picture of a fully clothed woman with the outline of her nipples visible though a t-shirt would be deemed according to him obscene, whereas a photograph of a woman spreading her legs would be okay so long as there were no outlines of what might be beneath the clothing visible.
I actually went one by one with him through images of a dozen other apps, include 1 image you used for this article, and others showing prostitutes’ ads on craigslist, porn stars and asian schoolgirls. All of those, according to him were okay because they don’t assess the intent of the content.
It would at least help if they would create a separate category for these apps. Currently they don’t enforce categorization rules, so these apps are starting to come up everywhere, including Healthcare & Fitness, and they already dominate the Lifestyle category and are squeezing out more legitimate apps.
touche’
Did you find those screen shots on Bing video search?
No, I would have had to black out too many areas if I had.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/01/badda-bing-indeed/
I feel sorry for whoever’s making bank from that Asian Boobs app, because now that it’s high profile you know Apple’s going to ban it. Poor guy.
don’t be so sure. they didn’t ban the upskirt app (it’s still available). apple just seems to have a fetish app:okay, satirical app:not okay, policy.
We wouldn’t want kids learning about satire now, would we?
They probably already know the internet is 90% porn though, so that’s ok.
Or maybe it’s Apple with the Fetish.
They know all about these apps, believe me, they are often in the top 100 app listings in Lifestyle and Entertainment. You only need to open iTunes and go into the Lifestyle category and there are multiple apps featuring porn stars and prostitutes. And the images aren’t buried in the app–they actually used for the marketing screenshots in iTunes. I discussed one of these same screenshots with their senior “special cases” reviewer, they’re like the special forces unit of the App Review Group, and he said this app did not violate their policies.
It was actually one of those cyclical arguments that literally went like this, “the app does not contain objectionable material because Apple does not approve objectionable material”. He repeated it even when I showed him an app that claimed to have schoolgirls in it. I was like, really? Upskirt shots of schoolgirls is not objectionable?
Some schoolgirls are quite old.
Why App Stores and Advertising models ultimately fail. Political correctness run amok, some people are so scared of the fringes (all of them) they band even the innocent.
If an app is in bad taste, allow it to stand on its own merits. Let it reflect on the company, designers and programmers and leave it alone. No need to ban it or boycott it. That’s Political Correctness run amok.
And this is not the first time Apple has arbitrarily banned one app or another for some pathetic reason.
Funny how an excuse seems like a valid reason from one perspective and pathetic (and just an excuse) from a different perception.
Great post!
hey hey..easy on the photos there. One is okay to prove the point. I have kids around me when I am on Techcrunch, now I have to start worrying.
take it up with apple
but yeah, fair enough, just trying to drive home the point.
when its on Techcrunch, the point is already driven, needs no more driving:)
I agree with Rahul. One pic would have been sufficient.
You must be married.
Wait…why are you looking a a Techcrunch article with “Asian Boobs” in the title if you have kids around?
+1
Maybe the kids aren’t Asian?
There has to be a good case for Apple just opening the whole thing up and letting porn and all in. It would be a huge market and we all get by just fine on the internet and are largely able to police ourselves. Also can’t imagine the under 18 market for iPhones too big given the price
Apple just needs an out – what about making the app approval process “social”? Like, people can sign up to test new apps, 100 users are randomly picked and auto-receive the app-in-waiting.
Then, after a week’s use, people can keep the tested app and update to the official download for free when available… If you keep the app, you go to the bottom of the app-testing list for the next round. If you you delete it, you get another testable app right away. And keep/delete has no bearing on approval/rating for the app – so, yes, you can approve an app, delete it, and get another one right away… But then you’d have to PAY for the app you presumably like. Likewise, you can keep and suggest rejection for apps – thus potentially being one of the “lucky few” to snag a deviant boob-watching app should it not pass muster.
EVERYBODY WINS!
The “user filter” would be the ultimate arbiter of app approval, after a (likely more mellow) internal process, and would clear Apple of any guilt if their “own users” decided an app was totally fine by them.
> If an app is in bad taste, allow it to stand
> on its own merits. Let it reflect on the
> company, designers and programmers
> and leave it alone.
That’s how Web apps already work. The fact that native apps work the other way, that they come with a rubber stamp from Apple, is considered a feature by the vast majority of users. It’s only CS people who are losing their minds that users are being considered before developers in computing. Too bad. The iPhone is a platform for users, not for developers. Make a Web app or make an App Store app, but either way, STFU.
thats a very good point you have there. unfortunately you are at level 2 in the elevator, why dont we go up a few floors?
we have a net neutrality battle in dc, we have a platform here seeking to limit free speech. you can’t distinguish from the app store app and the web app from here on the 4th floor.
ie–private enterprise needs to be monitored for it controls the mechanisms of the this media
It’s a platform for both, otherwise there would be no apps. Just as iTunes is also a platform for artists. And there is a point to speaking out. If it was just ranting and whining I wouldn’t bother because I have better things to do. It’s about forcing change the only way we can. And it’s important to me because it’s my livelihood. In the last year Apple has demonstrated that it does respond to bad publicity. While they greet developers who pay them 1/3 of their revenue (in my case I generate about 8-10k/month for Apple) with silence or contradiction and hypocrisy they do protect the image of their company.
As far as a more web-like approach to the App Store’s content, I think that would be fine if they created a more web-like view of the App Store. If the default way that everyone accessed the web we based on popularity, the way Apple is, there would be some major news sites, social networks, email and search engines at the top and then it would quickly descend into a long list of porn sites.
May be tc should start tagging the posts as 17+
+1000
Sounds like the MPAA, the RIAA and the Motion Picture rating system all wrapped into one. Crazy how satire is banned and sex sells. It boils down to “it’s good to be the king (or court jester) of the app store!!!”
omg am i really in techcrunch website???
Ok, someone has to say it:
Those girls are not appealing.
The developers probably spent 3 hours on this app: 1 hour writing a scraper, 1 hour scraping, and 1 hour removing photos with nipples showing. Aside from that, there was 0 quality control. What morons buy this crap?
Well, there must be an awful lot of morons out there, because this app wouldn’t be so high on the top-selling list otherwise.
Scott Adams broke down the potential market for any product as follows: 30% – People who don’t need the product, 60% – People who have no money, 5% – People who are nuts, 5% – People who will buy any damn thing. Capture those latter groups, you’ve got a 10% market share right off the bat. And no one’s going to tell you there aren’t enough of those two kinds of people out there…
Y’all need to find something else to bitch about–you’re anti-Apple/anti-iPhone propaganda of the last few months is getting boring. And in terms of hypocrisy, there are no bigger offenders than you hacks at Techcrunch, always writing with a particular bias for companies where Arrington is banging someone (MySpace), Arrington has penis envy (Google).
We’re coming out with an app as well, however it’s nothing like this. Very PG, sorry MG.
As an app developer this strikes very close to home as recently I had an app rejected for this kind of mess. The crazy thing is that it was an app update. The content is already in the App Store, I just can’t fix a bug because the existing content is not inappropriate. How are App developers supposed to not only try to make sure that our content is appropriate, but also worry about what particular reviewer is judging that fact on a particular day?
Apple controlling the gateway isn’t the problem… it’s about consistency and communication.
The whole thing is totally absurd, not the least because of Apple’s hypocrisy…
If you desire porn on your iPhone, just open the web browser and go to whatever porn website you want. Right? Why buy an app. Or am I missing something?
if the adult apps were let in, it’d be a killing for the app store. vhs was advanced through adult, web design was advanced via adult, and now apps can be.
Just need a way to verify 18+ and should be allowed. Apple is just selling the content not hosting it. It’s your phone, what you want on it is your choice.
I just have to ask: would there have been so much outrage if the political—not satirical—app in question had been right-wing? A fiver says “no”, but I would be pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
(There ain’t no such animal as a “semi-automatic assault rifle”; only left-leaning anti-gun activists use the phrase. Anybody who knows firearms in any depth knows better, because an assault rifle by definition must be capable of fully-automatic operation.)
That said, my cynicism is directed not at the left—the right is equally guilty of such selective outrage—but at the idea of a double standard.
One could argue that the “satire” is in equally dubious taste. I might, if the example is typical, and certainly it would be to someone who doesn’t happen to agree with the politics involved. Still, if the two apps are equally tasteless, then the article’s point does stand: why should one app be approved, while another equally tacky app be rejected?
. . . And hey, that particular style of female build happens to be my favorite!
Believe me; someecards are equal-opportunity satirists. Everyone is fair game.
In that case, I am indeed pleasantly surprised. Good on them.
I’m going to venture a guess and say that the Someecards app was probably free, given that the website content is free. (I don’t know how they make money — ads, perhaps?)
On the other hand, suggestive photos of Asian girls are a hugely lucrative product with plenty of buyers willing to pay. It all comes down to profits and Apple is being quite transparent about their motivations. No straight-up porn or Hitler references, which would ruin the brand, but anything else goes, especially if it’s a moneymaker.
Call me crazy, but as a privately run company, as absurd as their choices may be, isn’t it there prerogative to accept or reject apps as they so choose?
AAPL is not a privately run company…they are own by shareholders, people like you and me.
Also this ASIAN BOOBS app I believe is only 0.99 because it is part of the 1/2 off sale..so hurry fast and buy now! lol
thx for the advice. purchased!
app needs improvement, though. can’t swipe from pic to pic, have to press the on screen arrows, boo!
The whole Apple App store approval process is completely broken.
Apple is capitalizing on the fact that the iPhone presents a unique value preposition to developers that is hard to beat today in terms of sales potential.
I’ve been building Apps for few months now and having, like many other developers I’m in contact with, an absolutely nightmarish time dealing with the App Store.
I’m sure that there are many more software companies and developers out there that feel exactly the same but they are afraid to speak out as they might be red-flagged by Apple. Here are few examples of why the App Store process FAILs
1. Once you submit an App and it is in review, submitting an updated version with your critical bug fixes and last minute tweaks automatically puts you at the bottom of the queue. Yep, you heard it right. So, by the time V1.0 goes live (you never know when the App Store gods will allow it to go live), you already have v1.1 ready but customers can’t get it. Your v1.1 update may get stuck in the review limbo for 4-9 weeks and guess who suffers – your App users and your revenue. You can’t plan anything around the release dates of your App because you simply don’t know them. Can’t plan PR, marketing, etc… just pray to the App Store gods…
2. The App Store Black hole – You will typically get no response from Apple for 2-8 weeks. Yep, 2-8 weeks – no rejection, no concerns just a generic template email and silence – what a great QA process in Internet time! After 8 weeks you may get an App rejection due to this or that silly reason that is easy to fix, submit and pray once more…
3. Brand confusion – You have no way to tell which other Apps with similar names were submitted to the App store, so your App may be rejected after weeks of piling dust in the black hole just because some other shop in Taiwan submitted an App with a similar name few days before you. Isn’t this great? Now go rename your App, your domain name, marketing materials and rewrite your press releases, having fun yet?
4. Unfair advantage to big software companies – so, Wolfram Alpha can take 2 days to get approved and you need to wait 8 weeks. Why? Because it is a big software company that can help raise the iPhone profile.
5. Vanity Apps advantage – it seems that the simpler and stupider your App is, the faster it is going to take for it to go live! Many developers observed this. So, meaningful, non-trivial Apps with decent consumer value are on hold while asian boobs and flashlights go live. Lovely. The sheer amount of vanity Apps seems to clog the review process – Apple should have separate queue for Apps that took less than 1 week to develop (I estimate 80% of the submitted Apps are such) and Apple should use its 30% of Apps revenue share to double, triple and outsource some of the review tasks. It is quite clear that this team is just overwhelmed and probably mismanaged as well.
6. Deliberate community censorship – Apple has free online developers ‘community’ forums for registered iPhone developers – any rant about the review process or any negative comment about Apple will be removed from the forums silently overnight and probably get the developers into the red-list. Apple should use these censors to review more vanity Apps! In general, Apple developers are fanatic devotees so they are afraid to raise these kind of concerns anyhow.
I can go on and on, I just got started, but bottom line – monopolies are anti-competitive and suck out innovation out of software and Apple makes Stalin communications policies look innocent. The only thing that will make Apple change its attitude is Android / Windoz mobile getting more market share – so let’s hope this happens soon for the benefit of consumers and developers alike.
An anonymous iPhone App developer, now back to check if my App got approved and to pray to the App store gods.
“It’s just beyond ridiculous that upskirt apps and apps dedicated to boobs are fine, but satire is not. ”
It is not “beyond ridiculous.” Satire and erotic images are two completely separate, different, things. There is no connection whatsoever between the two. Imagine you are in charge of app store policies and you need to write down the policy for everyone to understand. I imagine you would have one section for erotic images that describes what kinds of images are OK. And I imagine there would be a separate section that discusses satire and it lists some subjects such as Hitler, jewish satire, etc and what the policy is.
Then, when a person reviews apps, they consult one section or another depending on the content.
That does not seem beyond ridiculous to me at all. I see no hypocrisy at all.
The issue here is what is the policy about satire? I’d really like to know more about that than read jokes about creepy old men…because if you are trying to be satirical..it isn’t working!
the hypocrisy is that “public figures” like roman polanski and hitler need to be kept safe from ridicule, but half-naked asian women don’t.
what about naughty hotties? it’s already #16 .. its just ridiculous..
Its not sad anymore how many loopholes are in the app store.
Apple is really not earning my respect because of its rather flaky app approval.
It takes just one little step to go downhill even how amusing things seem to be, Its a typical example of negating paradox.
well, this is the third, and last, time I will complain about the nsfw photos you guys put up, as I will be removing your feed from my reader.
I really wish you all would use the test of “if some random person walked up on me reading this article, would I be embarrassed, or fired?”
isnt the usual complaint that sex is seen as evil but violence is just fine?
apple shouldnt be censoring anything.