Yesterday, I reported that Apple had allowed the first softcore iPhone porn app entry into the App Store. Shortly after, the app disappeared and I immediately blamed Apple only to apologize later for jumping the gun. Well, it appears Apple did remove the app after all. Apple confirmed the move in a statement on Friday.

“Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content,” according to the statement. “The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store.”

My question is how did the app get approved in the first place? In the description of the app on the store, it clearly said the app contained pictures of naked women. Apple put a 17+ rating on the app and published it.

Why then were they surprised when people downloaded pictures of naked women?

Apple clearly wants to be the gatekeeper of the App Store, dictating what is appropriate for us to download. Okay, that’s fair. It is Apple’s store, but please get this approval process under control.

The more that things like this happen, the more people lose confidence in what’s going on in there. It’s confusing for everyone involved.