Geek Entertainment News and Commentary

iApp Developers Beware! iSteve Can Pull Your iApp Without iWarning!

Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 1:11 pm by Jami

Angry Zen Minion Kevin Bahrt sent along this piece about Apple yanking Apps off their App Store without explanation. Three apps in particular found themselves pulled from the store within days of their release.

BoxOffice - This free app lists movie times, locations, and reviews. DO! WANT!
Nullriver - With this app, users can turn their phone into a wireless routers using AT&T’s G3 or Edge networks depending on availability.
I Am Rich - For only $999.99, this app displays a little red gem on your iPhone or iTouch dsahboard.

Now before I start railing against my former master, Apple has never said that the iPhone would be an open development platform. It’s their technology, it’s their store, they can choose to sell whatever they want.

Having said that, pulling apps just without explanation is bad business. I could understand if the apps in question were malicious and bricked your phone or stole your data. But if they’re not malicious, why shut out developers? As a movie geek, BoxOffice would be a perfect app for my phone. Nullriver is just full of awesome. And if you’re dumb enough to purchase I Am Rich, all the more power to you. It hurts Apple in no way to allow these apps to be sold. Now that they’re no longer available, the only option you have to get these apps is you unlock your phone and seek out the developers.

The app store is a closed systems and by shutting out developers for no apparent reason, Apple is depriving users of some potentially awesome apps.

However, having now said all of that, the list of apps that have been pulled pales in comparison to the apps available for purchase and download. And if you did manage to snag one or all three of the apps discussed, they still work. The culling could be an attempt to come up with some sort of official release policy. Who knows. Until Apple makes a statement, all we can really do is complain and speculate.

So are practices like this enough to make you resist the sexy temptation of fondling an iPhone G3 of your own? Or will you give in to temptation and purchase one knowing that some developers will be left out of the party?

[Via Fortune]

9 Responses to “iApp Developers Beware! iSteve Can Pull Your iApp Without iWarning!”

Kevin Bahrt
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Huh, I was under the impression that not only did Apple pull the programs they removed the programs from the phones or something. I think someone actually tried to say that I Am Rich is a scam because they bought it and expected more than what was listed.

Darren J. Gendron
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Any bets that Apple re-releases a similar app for the movie stuff, only at a cost?

Jami
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Author Comment

Not sure. The article mentioned something about a Movie.app in the store already. But man, BoxOffice would be perfect on any phone!

McDucky
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

From what I understand talking to my pal Todd in Apple -

BoxOffice was pulled because there is currently a complaint that the person who posted the app wasn’t the original creator. That the app is stolen intellectual property, so Apple had to pull it until the crisis is resolved.

I Am Rich was pulled for being a scam.

And Nullriver violates some term of service via AT&T. Or something equally oblique as that.

Jami
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm

Author Comment

Those all sound like perfectly reasonable explanations to me. Any reason why Apple hasn’t released a statement to that effect?

Kevin Bahrt
Posted: Aug 14th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

I am rich isn’t technically a scam. It delivers exactly what it promises and actually says the only reason to buy it is to waste money. Some guy thought it was a joke, clicked buy, and realized that he had left all his credit card info in so that it automatically billed him for the thousand dollars. It’s just like real jewelry, it just sits there and costs money, no practical applications but still quite expensive. Time share’s are something of a scam, those emails about the prince of Nigeria are scams, I Am Rich is not a scam, it’s just taking money from foolish people without any misrepresentation or lying so how can it be a scam.

Dan
Posted: Aug 15th, 2008 at 1:23 am

I will never get an iPhone, simply because I, like a good majority of the people who actually did buy them, will never need or use all the features available. So I might as well save the money and stick with something that will do precisely what I need, with only the extras I will actually use.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who will actually get good use out of their iPhone, and kudos to them, but honestly, I’m fairly sure that a good majority of people got their iPhone for the same reason that everyone rushes to get/see something on opening day: to say they did.

llama
Posted: Aug 15th, 2008 at 1:28 am

There is a free app called “Showtimes” for the iPhone that will list movie locations and times. It doesn’t show reviews, but it does give a summary about the plot (which I appreciate because I’m not always up to date on latest movie releases).

Kunoichi
Posted: Aug 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am

I won’t get an iPhone because it’s overpriced, and I dislike Apple. That company is just as evil as Microsoft, just in mostly different ways, some of them more nefarious. Such as their Mac vs. PC campaign that is not only misleading and misinforming, it contains outright falsehoods that get past the truth in advertising regulations because those regulators don’t understand half of what is being said.

If I really want a nice PDA/Palm Pilot with web capabilities, I’ll get a M3/R4 for my DS, and download all the free apps I want (and not get ROMs, because downloading ROMs of games for currently supported systems *is* morally wrong, except in certain very specific circumstances.)

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