The iPhone App Store Rogues Gallery (AAPL)

Dan Frommer | August 7, 2008 3:35 PM

usual-suspects.jpgSome 1,500 apps have made it into Apple's iPhone App Store in its first month in business. And so far, at least five have gotten the boot, including the most recent, "I Am Rich," a $999.99 gag with no features. UPDATE: The guy behind that one says he made about $6,000 selling 8 copies in less than a day.

Why were the apps killed, and by whom? It varies: Developer Tapulous proactively removed its contact-info-swapping Friend Book app last month after it found out the app was sending peoples' contact info to strangers. But in the case of the other four apps, it seems that Apple had second thoughts and pulled the app itself. It's not clear whether Apple has told the developers why it yanked the apps. The people behind seemingly harmless movie-listings app BoxOffice, for instance, say they never heard from the company.

The iPhone App store is supposed to be a walled garden -- Apple is only letting consumers access programs that it's vetted in advance. But these quick reversals make it seem as if Apple isn't paying close attention to what it lets in and out of its real estate. And sometimes it reverses its reversal: Apple let in NetShare, which lets you hijack your iPhone's 3G Internet connection and use it from a computer -- a violation of AT&T's terms of service -- and then kicked it out. Then it let it back in again. Now it's out once more.

We've asked Apple for comment about its app inclusion and removal policy. While we wait to hear from them (this might take a while) -- please let us know if there are apps we should be adding to our rogues list.

The iPhone App Store Rogues Gallery

App Developer Added Removed Who Removed? Why Removed?
I Am Rich Armin Heinrich Aug. 5 Aug. 6 Unknown Unknown
NetShare Nullriver Jul. 31 Aug. 2 Apple Our guess: Violates AT&T's terms of service; Can't tether phone to computers.
BoxOffice
 Metasyntactic

Aug. 1
Apple
 Developer has/had no idea.
Aurora Feint Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron     Apple Security flaw: Game was sending contact list to servers, unencrypted; now back in store.
Friend Book
 Tapulous Jul. 18 Jul. 19 Tapulous Bug in app was sending peoples' contact info to strangers

See Also:
Worthless, $1000 "I Am Rich" iPhone App Disappears
Apple's iPhone-App-Approval Mouse Falls Off Treadmill: Buy The $1000 App That Does Nothing
iPhone Game 'Tap Tap Revenge': Popular With Humans, Birds

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24 Comments

Bob said:
The iphone app "iPint" is now gone. It was free and far superior to iBeer which is still available for a fee. I still have mine and wanted to know if it had problems (my iphone does have serious problems and just got a replacement hoping once that synced it works), called Apple and they told me that I would have to ask the itunes store and they didn't know.
Falkirk said:
You know 5 out of 1,500 (one-third of one percent) for a brand new process doesn't seem that bad to me.
Nope, not bad at all. Seems to be a communication problem between Apple and its developers, though.
Concerned Reader said:
Is there too much coverage on the iPhone on this blog? I come here for an analysis of Silicon Valley through Wall Street eyes -- not the play-by-play of Apple and its products.
Debby said:
So you *WANT* the Apple Store (and your phone) loaded with useless $1000 screen-savers?
And copyright violations?
And programs that crash your phone?
And programs that clearly violate AT&T's usage agreements?
Another app would send your private 'contacts list' to someone else.

I want very high quality software, instead.
KenC said:
Perhaps, Apple wanted proof that Box Office has approval from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic to use their ratings systems. It seems to me that RT and Metacritic might want to build their own apps.
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Apple should implement a double-check when one purchases an app over a certain dollar limit to guard against accidental or rash clicks. :)
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Jim (URL) said:
Um, perhaps because the harmless app BoxOffice was pulling copyrighted content from other sites and using it as its own? Seriously kids, ask more than simple questions!
Bob (but not the Bob above) said:
I emailed Carling last week asking why iPint had been removed from the App store. So far, no response. The app is still featured prominently on their web site. Curious.


Bob said:
I got a reply from the iPint team today:

Hello

Apologies for any disappointment, but Carling marketing is only intended for the UK and European markets.

The Carling Team
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