Apple continues to refine App Store…

…and we use the word refine very loosely. In the last 30 days, Apple has dropped the App Store ban-hammer on applications that display images of scantily clad women and Wi-Fi scanning/stumbling applications. The bare-naked ladies were removed because, as Apple VP Phil Schiller put it, “the needs of the kids and parents” had to come first. Wi-Fi scanning applications got the boot for making calls to a private API, which raises the obvious question… why were these applications approved in the first place? So, what is latest app genre to feel the sting of Apple’s proverbial backhand? So called “cookie-cutter” applications. Apple is beginning to reject apps that were created using application building services and do not add any specific functionality to the iPhone or iPod Touch. Or, as TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid succinctly put it, “Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish.” Whatever the reasoning, Apple is sending a scary message to potential application developers… we can change our mind.

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