Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010    Text size: 

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple’s marketing boss defends the company’s decision to pull racey iPhone apps from its App store.

In the last few days, Apple has caused an uproar among independent app developers by removing thousands of sexy apps, citing its new policy blocking sexual content.

“"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide marketing told the NY Times.

One app that was removed is called Wobble iBoobs which allows users to jiggle women’s breasts.

Some developers have been told that overtly sexual content, skin, sexual connotations, women in bikinis and anything sexually arousing is now forbidden.

However, other apps from Playboy and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition which feature barely naked women in bikinis are still available for download.

When asked about the Swimsuit Edition app, Phil said, “"The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format."

This sentiment is a hard pill to swallow for independent app developers who say their apps were approved, then got kicked off the App store without warning.

They also say Apple needs to provide more specific guidelines on what it considers to be suitable content for iPhone applications.