Apple Drops Promo Codes for 17+ Rated Apps

Apple recently announced that 1.5 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. With the dodgy approvals process alienating developers, you’d sometimes think Apple reckons it got where it did alone, without the people actually making the apps. Now, the company’s gone one step further, cleverly shooting itself in the foot (and developers in the face), thereby trying everything it can think of to screw up its lead and give the competition a sporting chance.

After all, surely Apple wouldn’t be quite so stupid as to ban all promo codes for 17+ rated apps? But that’s the story on TUAW, punching in the gut an already broken system (given that Apple has yet to provide non-US App Store account holders with an official means of redeeming promo codes). (See also: Q & A: How Sex Game Apps Get Approved By Apple)

You might think “so what?”, since, clearly, the only things rated 17+ would be dodgy ‘porn’ apps, right? Well, no. As we reported, Eucalyptus—an eReader for Project Gutenberg content—was saddled with a 17+ rating recently, due to it supposedly allowing ‘unfiltered internet content’. (In practise, Apple was seemingly miffed at the app enabling access to the text from Kamasutra, despite, say, Safari enabling access to hard-core pornography websites.) This means the 17+ rating is likely to affect some or all updates for all web-oriented software—Twitter clients, web browsers, IM clients, Flickr clients, eBook readers, RSS readers and so on.

Promo codes don’t generally affect the public. Although they’re sometimes given away by developers, they’re usually used by writers and journalists as review copies. Without promo codes, 17+ apps run the risk of not getting mainstream coverage, meaning they’re far less likely to ‘break through’ and become a sales success. (Contrary to what you might think, most publications don’t in fact have a ‘budget’ for writers to buy software, and many outlets enforce a policy of strictly not paying for review copies. When you’re reviewing hundreds of apps, those dollarpoundeuros stack up pretty fast.)

Here’s hoping Apple has a change of heart, because the App Store already has enough problems, without Apple making things worse, not only for developers and reviewers, but for users (who won’t find out about great new 17+ apps) and themselves (since sales will be lower).

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell was once Cult of Mac’s designer and an occasional contributor. Find out whatever he’s doing now on Twitter @CraigGrannell or his website, craiggrannell.com.