Apple chieftain Steve Jobs has said that there will be no porn on the iPhone. To date, the Apple App Store still does not allow adult applications. Those unfamiliar with the iPhone may wonder why developers don't just build rogue applications and distribute them.
The answer: Apple runs a tight ship. In order for an app to be available for the iPhone, it must go through a rigorous — some say arbitrary — approval process before being added to the App Store's lineup.
To be sure, independent developers can still build their own apps, but without Apple's stamp of approval, those developers would only be able to distribute their wares to iPhone users who have "cracked" the device's operating system. Breaking through the iPhone OS is a complicated, risky procedure that only the most tech-savvy users might attempt.
Resistor Productions Chief Operating Officer Tobias Batton recently unveiled a racy (but decidedly PG-13) iPhone app called iGirl. It's a simple concept: Users can undress and manipulate a curvy female avatar on their iPhone screen.
Batton told XBIZ that he and his creative team wouldn't make an actual porn app until Apple formally approved such content, and he's not hopeful they will.
"There is too much risk to develop a complex adult app, then have it get rejected," he said. "Apple has been loosening their restrictions with apps like ours, and apps like iFart. I do not think they will allow full adult, though. I mean, it's Apple. We do have some other apps in the works with adult themes but we are trying to keep them all around PG-13 type content."
The PG-13 theme runs through the apps that test the boundaries of Apple's standards. The iPhone app Wobble isn't even an adult app, but its functionality — users can make areas on any photo jiggle — clearly lends itself to the bouncing of breasts.
Given Apple's track record regarding adult, it's not likely that they'll start allowing adult. Besides Jobs' stated prohibition of adult content, Apple has kept the App Store pretty clean, even going so far as to reject a book submitted to the App Store because it used the word "fuck" in a sexual context.
But despite Apple's resistance to adult, Batton's excited about the future of iGirl.
"We are already working a bunch of new features. The current build is pretty basic. We wanted to make sure Apple would approve the app before we went to crazy with development. You should see a pretty robust update in a few weeks.
To download iGirl, visit the Apple App Store.
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