A lone messenger has emerged from the impenetrable fortress that is Apple’s App Store, and his name is Phil Schiller. Earlier this week, John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote a lengthy column detailing the plight of Ninjawords (iTunes Link), a sleek iPhone dictionary that uses Wiktionary as its data source. Gruber wrote that the application had been rejected for including numerous common swear words, going on to write that “Apple censored an English dictionary.” Not so, says Schiller, who is Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing and is widely regarded as one of the more recognizable ‘faces’ of Apple, after Steve Jobs.
In a rare moment of semi-transparency, Schiller has written back to Gruber, on the record, in an attempt to point out errors in the original column. I’ve included an excerpt below, and you can find the full letter in Gruber’s post (it’s well worth reading if you’ve been tracking the App Store closely).
Contrary to what you reported, the Ninjawords application was not rejected in the App Store review process for including common “swear” words. In fact anyone can easily see that Apple has previously approved other dictionary applications in the App Store that include all of the “swear” words that you gave as examples in your story.
The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable.
In short, when Ninjawords initially submitted their application in May, Apple’s representatives objected to the inclusion of some swear words and told the developers to wait until the iPhone supported parental controls. Unfortunately, at that point nobody knew exactly when those would be released, so Ninjawords decided to remove the words in question and resubmit. There seems to be some discrepancy regarding which words Apple objected to — Schiller writes that they were “urban slang” terms, but the App Store reviewers reportedly explicitly identified ‘cunt’, ‘fuck’, and ’shit’. In any case, Ninjawords removed the words on their own accord in an attempt to get to market before competitors, so “censorship” probably isn’t the right word to use here. But Gruber’s points about the App Store’s inconsistencies certainly still stand.
All of that said, I find it totally bizarre that Phil Schiller took the time to write this lengthy explanation without saying anything about the myriad of other problems with the App Store (it is possible that Gruber omitted portions of the letter, though it doesn’t sound like it). No mention of the Google Voice fiasco, nothing on the awful support developers have seen from App Store representatives, nothing on the inconsistent and nebulous approval policies. Schiller’s only allusion to the ongoing problems was his closing paragraph:
Apple’s goals remain aligned with customers and developers — to create an innovative applications platform on the iPhone and iPod touch and to assist many developers in making as much great software as possible for the iPhone App Store. While we may not always be perfect in our execution of that goal, our efforts are always made with the best intentions, and if we err we intend to learn and quickly improve.
I realize that Schiller probably has his hands tied to some extent, though he is obviously quite high up on the Apple food chain. And his letter to Gruber is really a breath of fresh air after many months of near-silence from Apple. But at the same time, his statement that Apple’s efforts are always made with the best intentions with hopes of improving quickly are hard to take at face value. Apple has remained mum on these problems for so long now, it’s hard not to think that they’re only beginning to address them publicly after the flurries of bad press have turned into a persistent raging storm. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Apple really has been working hard behind the scenes, but they’ve done nothing to show that that’s the case.
And really, there’s a very easy way for Apple to ameliorate many of these problems long before they’re actually fixed. It’s called transparency. Apple should start a blog about the troubled App Store, just as it did when MobileMe was prematurely released to the masses. It may clash with Apple’s secretive culture, but it’s gotten to a point where Apple is putting livelihoods at stake, and the growing unrest in the developer community is reaching a head. Developers would be far more accommodating to these issues if they had more of an idea about what Apple was doing to fix things. Schiller’s letter is a good first step, but dictionary censorship is a far cry from being the App Store’s only problem.
Now thats interesting. Apple’s silence also gives them media hype … so does any rare words that comes out from Cupertino!
Techcrunch, what do you know about the rumor that Apple is rejecting all new e-book apps on the basis that they don’t want to police publication rights?
http://www.macr...re-submissions/
It has nothing to do with policing publication rights. They can do what all other document sites such as DocStoc and Scribd do which is to allow the document and remove it when the copyright holder complains. Since it does not cost them anything to refund money, and the developer ends up losing money, the developer will make sure that they have the right in advance.
It has to do with the fact that it will eat into the profit of audiobooks. Those are much more profitable than the potential of a $0.99 cent application and Apple can’t control the price of the eBook where they can control the price of the audiobook.
Also, you have to take into account the relationship between Amazon and Apple. Amazon being a very big retailer for Apple products and them having their own Kindle App. What will happen to that relationship?
We will probably never know the real reason, but we do know that the iPhone is as closed a platform as there ever was and a handful of people control the content put on that device.
Dear f-ing goodness. You are probably correct! Ick.
Dear RIM, they’re called developer tools!
“Dear John
We are not bullshitting you, we are REALLY bullshitting you. We have no idea how to run an open platform because, well, we never had one.
God bless us,
“
HA! I agree, it kills me how so many people have done nothing but bitch about MS (not saying they are perfect!) for _YEARS_ about being proprietary and not open to change etc. All the while Apple has been riding the wave of “cool” and no one has bitched once about ultimate socialism that is the very soul of the company.
If by “no one” you mean “lots of people,” I completely agree. I’ve heard griping about Apple’s lack of transparency for years.
I am very heavily involved in promoting iPhone and iPod Touch apps on behalf of developers on http://www.appgiveaway.com
However I am still confused as to how Apple decides what apps are or are not acceptable in the Apple Store. Lets hope Phil Shiller can lighten us on this subject!
I have been waiting for 1 month and 2 weeks for my app to be reviewed!
We created a curse/slang word generator – iCuss – that was bashed around quite a bit prior to launching successfully with the 17+ rating system in place. But, even with that, we were not sure what the Apple Police would crack down upon in our dictionary of words. We pulled out a few of the really choice ones and it is successfully for sale on the store. Now that it is up, we plan to push an update with all the raw goodness in place. We’ll see how ‘open and free’ the rating system allows us to be.
- e
Unless the reviewers never visit the bathroom (and thus must be some alien specie), or engage in intercourse (ditto) I find these words to be perfectly cromulent.
I’m not surprised that Schiller did not address the Google Voice fiasco. Most executives would not comment on issues being investigated by the government.
I’m not surprised about that, either. But it would be nice if we had an idea of how they’re addressing the other problems.
uhm they don’t care about nice…they care about looking nice.
really since when did a company have to answer to it’s base.
apple will contiune to be apple and do whatever they want, and although some of it might not be to your or my liking, what can you really do about it.
it’s interesting that people are responding to “the press”. they should just listen to their customer feedback channels and deal with things as they come.
hasn’t they way apple has been made lots of money for them? why would they be interested in changing now?
can someone explain to me why my phone’s manufacturer gets to tell me what software I can install on it?
Because a) the phone is a *networked* apparatus and Apple/AT&T have to maintain service quality for *all* such connected devices, not just yours, b) Apple has to guaranty proper functionality of that apparatus for the duration of its warranty period, and c) any app that adversely impacts the quality/brand equity of the device/network is inimical to Apple/AT&T’s commercial interests which they have to maintain for the benefit of their shareholders and all customers.
I think we’ll get a new app store at the annual iPod event in September.
They’ll need to totally re-vamp it once the tablet comes out.
Based on his reasoning, Apple should remove the Safari web browser or any of the many Wikipedia apps in the store since they, how did he state it?, ” provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable”. How about images? Songs? Etc… There are many rap songs in iTunes with much more objectionable language than in the AppStore.
That is the problem with trying to be both a content provider and a censor. Eventually, you’ll have to censor your content. In Apple’s case, we know that won’t happen. iTunes is their cash cow and no one will do anything to it.
Apple, sadly, has become such a hypocrite that their own policies are at war with each other.
Exactly. They sure don’t block any songs from iTunes, some of which contain vulgar terms. Just imagine if the App Store rules applied to iTunes.
he said, the apple dude that there is no need for the wiki app because it is an “open, ever changing source”…i think that’s the wording.
i’m actually glad he replied. i have a better understanding of what happened.
you should get an award for using the word – ameliorate
lol na. that was one of my SAT words.
good post jason. i think you basically said everything that is still on people’s minds. this statement was lol worthy (the excerpts provided here but i am heading over to the gruber post to read the whole thing). it’s nice that he spoke on behalf of the company especially instead of giving us his opinion about what is happening at apple, but it’s also nice that he actually didn’t go into what the problem(s) is/are. this dictionary app thing is one of many and isn’t even the point. is there somewhere i can go to access the criterias for what apple considers for apps approval and rejection and is this a case by case application of their moral mandate/approval methodology or is it a blanket rejection or approvoal based on meeting or not meeting criterias…if there isn’t something i can access then the developers making the apps who experience this have to make sure they keep talking about their apple experience. they should start a blog. i don’t even care if apple starts a blog and is biased. i even sometimes go and check out multiple google blogs because as a user i want to know what’s going on.
i like apple but they make me sad. can tc cover the apple tablet more, please, i’m thinking about saving money to get it when it comes out.
the only way out of this mess is to stop filtering based on content and focus just on functionality — does the app work with no bugs and does it follow the design rules.
Sure you will end up with some lousy apps but the solution is:
1) an enforced refund policy when consumers complain.
2) Allow people to filter out developers when visiting the AppStore.
Good idea, but it won’t work. Filters sound like a solution, but 99% of users won’t use them, or won’t get how. And letting anybody sell anything would harm the Apple brand.
No, the real solution is for Apple to tighten up the standards on the Apple App Store. And then let the rest of the world sell iPhone apps in their own stores and on their own sites.
For years, anybody could sell software for PalmOS, which had a huge percentage of the PDA market. And you know what? Nothing terrible happened. As with any ecommerce, people generally learned how to tell a good deal from a bad one, and nobody blamed Palm if they bought a junky app.
The problem here isn’t Apple’s desire to control Apple’s store. It’s their insistence on controlling everything you run on your iPhone, regardless of where you get it.
actually, I’m surprised that developers don’t just rate all their apps 17+… I’d bet more CD’s have been sold just because there’s an “adult advisory” label on it.
I submitted a “yo momma” app on the store, and the first reviewer said it was obscene, crude, and vulgar…. ummm yeah, it’s supposed to be… they took particular offense to this line “yo momma so ugly she get get her kids drunk before they’ll take milk from her breast”… it got rejected… two weeks latter I resubmitted same app, and it went straight through… my guess is that the first reviewer was an fat ugly momma, and the second had a sense of humor.
I find it bizarre that you find this bizarre.
The ninja words article happened to strike a chord with a freedom of speech issue. Apple was willing to address it but too lazy to do the homework to support their argument.
As for apps which compete with Apple’s business interests? Censorship without explanation will continue.
i just got around to reading the gruber posted. it doesn’t seem that bad especially if their reasoning is “because of urban slang” (urban always gets a bad rap)…but i think this has to do with a question i asked in another thread…is there an urban dictionary app on the iphone….or any dictionary app that is like urban dictionary. so if this is why this ninjawords app got rejected, then maybe that is true for other dictionary apps that have been rejected. so is he saying there is nothing on the ipod/iphone/mac products that contain urban slang? like slang, urban or otherwise is banned from apple products…and apparently slang doesn’t appear in dictionaries…especially not the ones cited in grubers’ previous story. i don’t agree with this age rating system but i do agree that there needs to be a way to reappeal apple’s decision like gruber mentioned.
I think that it is horrible that Jason Kincaid has included such offensive words in this blog. I think that they should be taken down immediately as I and many others find the first one to be totally uncalled for. Techcrunch should never under any circumstance allow one of their writers to get away with posting a blog with the “C” word in it. Tisk tisk.
Since I don’t feel like typing you can read my comments over at Red Sweater:
http://www.red-...#comment-150980
$AAPL secrecy + $MACR incompetence = THIS.
I wouldn’t trust ANYTHING that comes out of Schiller’s pie-hole.
Time has changed. Apple is forbidding iPhone users to install Google Voice app on the device. They decided to take it off App Store. Why? Just because.
This smart phone is essentially a computer with operating system and an ability to install third party software like any other computer. When I called Apple, tech support representative informed me that Apple does not have to explain why they are forbidding me to install Google apps after I purchased device planning to use it with Google Voice. She also informed me that App Store is like any other store has right to choose what they put on their shelves.
Well, I respect their choice, but the last time I checked in my neighborhood mall none of their stores are FORBIDING me to use products from anywhere else but from their store. Does Apple respect my choice? Communist China government did not dare to make Lenovo give me a list of software I can install on my laptop. Lenovo respects my choice because they know what will happen with their laptops if they would try to deny this choice to people in free world.
Just imagine what would happen if Microsoft make an agreement with Comcast and set up a list of software you are allowed to install. What if they allow you to connect to internet only through Comcast? What if Comcast decides they not like some software and a week later Microsoft would FORBID using it without any meaningful explanation? That would definitely be considered mafia-like behavior and nobody would tolerate it.
We are not tolerating this behavior neither from China, US government, Microsoft, nor from Comcast. For how long are we going to tolerate this behavior from Apple? I erased my iPhone, I smashed it with hammer and I will send it on Monday to Steve Jobs, c/o Apple 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014
Time has changed.