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Apple Bans App Devs From Using Gold iPhone 5s In Promotional Materials

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It’s almost a given that the iPhone 6 will feature a new, more-advanced camera — although there's been far less of a consensus on what form that camera is likely to take. Some things are known for sure: Apple recently snapped up Nokia’s PureView camera engineer Ari Partinen, although his impact is more likely to be felt on the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7. Apple also recently received an electronic image-stabilization system instead of an optical one, essentially faking the stabilization technique using software instead of moving parts. It’s likely that the iPhone 6 camera will have pixels that are 1.75 um instead of the iPhone 5s’ 1.5 um, too.

It’s almost a given that the iPhone 6 will feature a new, more-advanced camera — although there's been far less of a consensus on what form that camera is likely to take. Some things are known for sure: Apple recently snapped up Nokia’s PureView camera engineer Ari Partinen, although his impact is more likely to be felt on the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7.

Apple also recently received an electronic image-stabilization system instead of an optical one, essentially faking the stabilization technique using software instead of moving parts.

It’s likely that the iPhone 6 camera will have pixels that are 1.75 um instead of the iPhone 5s’ 1.5 um, too.


In what little advertising attention the iPhone 5s has received from Apple, the device’s new gold color option has been the main focal point. There are both TV and print ads in circulation that tout the gold, and the gold 5s is still the hardest to buy.

While Apple capitalizes on gold fever, the company has required that third-party developers not use the color in any of their marketing materials.

In an update to the App Store’s Marketing Guidelines, Apple has changed the iPhone colors that devs are allowed to use. In the past, it was the white iPhone that was off limits. Developers were even contacted by Apple to alter their marketing images or videos if white Apple devices were shown running their apps.

If you think back, most of Apple’s own marketing used the white iPhone pre-5s, so the rule made a clear distinction between how developers could market vs. Apple. Maybe Apple’s hopes were that a customer would subliminally associate a white iPhone with its own branding to the point where it wouldn’t confuse a third-party dev’s app for something Apple made. Who knows. A lot of people disagreed with the rule, but that’s the way it was.

Now, the untouchable color is gold. From Apple’s updated guidelines for developers:

Feature only the most current Apple products in the following finishes or colors: iPhone 5s in silver or space gray, iPhone 5c in white or blue, iPad Air in silver or space gray, and iPad mini in silver or space gray. If multiple Apple products are shown, display them in the correct relative sizes.

Interestingly, that also leaves out the 5c in yellow, pink, and green—probably because Apple wants to reserve those colors for its cheerful commercials. The blue and white 5c colors have been reported to be the most popular among consumers, so there’s that too.

As an iPhone and app user, you don’t often think about how closely Apple manages the marketing of its products. The control extends all the way down to the color of the iPhone you see in an app developer’s promotional video or website.

Source: App Store Marketing Guidelines

Via: MacRumors

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