John Gruber reported earlier today that Apple denied listing an application on the iTunes AppStore that plays a variety of fart sounds. Apple “determined” that the application was “of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod Touch user community”. Yet, as Gruber points out, Apple has no problems listing the vast amount of shovelware that has made it to the AppStore, including the infamous “I am Rich” application that did practically nothing.
Understandably, Apple doesn’t want the AppStore to become a den of debauchery, but let’s face it: there are songs and videos with worse content available through iTunes than what the Pull My Finger fart application bears. If Apple doesn’t want juvenile material, or even adult content to stand among common applications, then Apple should institute a ratings system for iPhone applications and categorize AppStore contents more cleverly. Otherwise, Apple is simply shooting itself in the foot when it comes to jailbreaking, as developers will likely still want to see their creations used on the iPhone, and end-users will want to run unsigned third-party applications if they can’t get them through the AppStore. In other words, Installer.app and Cydia will continue to live on, and there will remain a reason to jailbreak iPhones for some time to come.
One would think that Apple would do whatever it takes to minimize the desire for its customers to hack their products just to maximize functionality that the product ought to offer out-of-box, but evidently Apple doesn’t consider jailbreaking a real concern. Perhaps Apple sees utilities like PwnageTool, Installer.app, Cydia, et al, similar to programs like Handbrake that allow users to rip DVDs to be played on the iPhone or iPod. In other words, Apple may not want to condone pornographic videos, which is why they simply don’t list this kind of content in the iTunes store. Nonetheless, Apple is quiet on the matter of users ripping pornography for use on iPods, even if the procedure for doing so is easy. SImilarly, Apple may feel that using Installer.app or Cydia is not a big deal, as they don’t advertise the possibility and assume that only a small sub-set of iPhone buyers will even be aware of the means to do so; ignorance of unsigned third-party applications by the consumer is bliss to Apple, and it will remain so unless Apple brings unnecessary attention to the matter.
We wonder if the growing sentiment that Apple may becomes the next Big Brother of computer companies, succeeding Microsoft in that position, is similarly of little concern to Apple.
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