Inane and childish? Most definately. But is the Wobble iboobs app offensive? According to Apple, the iphone app certainly is offensive and the company have banned it from the appstore. Strangely though, the app does not actually feature any boobs at all. What it does, is allows the user to add their own images and the app can make the boobs jiggle. It seems to appeal to the teenager in men, and in that capacity the app is inane, however following complaints, it has been banned from the appstore. Apple clearly believed it was suitable for distribution, but withdraw the app after a few weeks, and reported sales of $300 k.
This is the latest in a number of app withdrawls for a variety of reasons and it would appear that Apple’s policy is getting becoming more draconian. Although their policy has been to withdraw or refuse apps without a detailed specification, they have now given some clearer guidelines following the banning of 5000 apps. These were reported in MobileCrunch, the list of objectionable content is almost laughable: no women in bikinis, including those in ice skating tights and for that matter no images of men in bikinis! No sexual innuendo or sexual references in content. Fine, but where does that leave the Playboy App, which, at the time of writing, is still in there?
I would agree that most of the apps that have been banned are largely childish and stupid, this kind of draconian censorship doesn’t work. For starters, most of this is just titilation (would that word be banned in the app store), we’re not talking about wholesale pornographic exploitation of women. Our world – from TV to magazines to the internet is full of images and content far more offensive than anything Apple has banned. Ultimately it will probably back fire on the appstore. More open policies by the likes of Android, Blackberry and Nokia will ultimately drive users away from the iphone and to other handsets and operating systems.