Apple, Its Applications, and Their Implications

With all of the advanced technology available nowadays, it's no surprise that today we have cell phones that can apparently do anything and everything from reading and sending emails to reminding you where you parked your car. The phones capable of these multitudes of tasks are called "smartphones," with Apple's iPhone being one of the most popular. One of the reasons for the iPhone's popularity is attributed to its App Store, a virtual marketplace where users can download a slew of the nearly 50,000 (free or paid) applications created for use on the iPhone. These applications are self-contained programs that allow users to do well, anything and everything. Need your iPhone to do something? As Apple puts it, "There's an app for that."

One important aspect of Apple's App Store is its application approval process. Before users can download an application from the App Store, Apple must first approve it. This process not only checks for "buggy software, apps that crash too much, use of unauthorized APIs, [and] privacy violation," but it also filters out "inappropriate content for children...and anything that 'degrades the core experience of the iPhone'" (CNET). So not only does the approval process look at the technical specifications of an application, but it also takes into consideration an application's content. Censorship? Maybe.

Apple's approval process came under fire recently last summer. In July 2009, Apple rejected a Google Voice app. Other applications that were created for use with Google Voice were removed from the App Store as well. Apple claims that the reason for the rejection and removals is that these apps replaced certain iPhone functions and features.

Apple recently removed upwards of 5,000 applications with sexually objectionable content from its App Store. The removal of these explicit applications may have been due to the pending release of its latest gadget, the iPad. Apple, whose success with the iPhone is based on these powerful applications, hopes to duplicate such success with the iPad. The tech company also hopes to expand the iPad to a wide range of users, including parents and their tech-savvy children. These parents, aware of and concerned about the kinds of explicit and inappropriate content available online, would greatly value Apple's decision to remove these kinds of applications from its App Store.

Nowadays, Apple is not just a company that makes computer products; it now also provides its customers with actual content. Much like Disney-owned ABC, Apple must maintain a certain set of values regarding the content it provides in order to please its consumers. Though Apple still provides content that may not be suitable for children, movie downloads on iTunes that feature nudity and graphic violence for example, the applications provided on the App Store seem more directly connected to Apple as a company. Much like the advertising agencies of the 1950s that had direct influence over the content of television shows that featured its commercials, Apple wishes to control the content of its applications that are deeply associated with its brand.