An Easy Litmus Test For App Store Approval
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 8:01AM 
image from Geekanoids.co.ukApple found itself in an awkward position last week, as it removed a baby shaking app from the app store. Truth be told, there are other apps that mimic or derive fun from illegal or immoral acts on the store . And as you may have noticed, the usefulness of many of the apps is in doubt as well.
I have a humble solution to these problems, but don't expect it to be implemented anytime soon. There's a simple way to clear up the murky greys of the app store: Apple should simply ask themselves, if this app was made for the Mac, would we sell it in the retail store?
Overnight, the number of apps would significantly decrease (hence why it won't happen) but the faith in the apps as being worthwhile would skyrocket. I believe we could easily get down to say, 2,000 apps without any real loss.
Perhaps Apple could consider this test as the bar for the occasionally rumored premium apps store/section.
Reader Comments (5)
One man's meat is another man's poison...
Every app is useful to the developer just like every crap article is judged beautifully and critically written by its author.
Is the author of this article willing to submit all of his or her work to the same standard? That standard is: anything they write will only be posted on this site if someone was willing to physically publish it and sell it at Borders.
Apple needs either a more strict approval process or they need to implement the rumored "Premium App" section of the store. Because currently 90% of what is available is pure shovelware, particularly on the gaming front. The'yre even out doing the Wii in terms of crappy software, and in the end this reflects badly on the iPhone as a platform.
If the New York Times created an electronic reader and put it in the hands of millions of users as the iPhone is, then chose to make content available solely through their content store, I would expect a certain amount of scrutiny of that content. This article wasn't meant as a judgement of the worthiness of apps, but rather the slippery slope of judging what does and does not get through the process, and what is and isn't appropriate. It would make sense for Apple to have some consistency in what a user can expect when buying an app, whether in store, or through the App Store.
While I like the thought, I'm not sure I agree with it.
My biggest complaint with the app store is that it is an Apple exclusive. As I've said, while Apple has the "right" to turn down applications, they have the "responsibility" to do it sparingly because there is no other outlet for applications. For example, in ryanrit's comment above, I appreciate that editors at the New York Times might decide not to run a story which might offend some people. However, in that case, I can always start reading the New York Daily News or New York Post or LA Times or Chicago Tribune. There are plenty of other outlets where I can read a particular story.
To take the obvious case of the Baby Shaking app, I think Apple did the right thing. They accepted the application and then removed it upon complaints. I think that's much better than Apple trying to decide for themselves beforehand whether or not something is funny or heinous. Now, personally, I think Apple should not have taken it down--if you don't like the app, don't buy it. But I can understand why Apple did it.