Apple bans mag-app on Android from App Store

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Tuesday Brian Dixen, managing director of the small Danish magazine publisher Mediaprovider [2], got a call from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino California.

An Apple executive informed Brian Dixen that there was a problem with one of the new magazine apps, Mediaprovider was trying to get approved.

"So what's the problem? I asked sheepishly," says Brian Dixen who was well aware what the problem might be.

The magazine in question entitled 'Android Magasinet [3]' is brand new, bimonthly - and solely about Google's Android operatingsystem and the phones that use it.

The Apple executive, Richard from Worldwide Developer Relations, hesitated before answering:

"You know... your magazine... it's just about Android.... we can't have that in our App Store."

"It's funny really because I don't think we would sell many magazines on Android through Apple App Store, but the question is where this is going," says Brian Dixen, who thinks that Apple has crossed the line in this case.

Earlier this year the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet has had similar problems with Apple because of the newspaper's daily "page nine girl". Apple's puritan views on naked flesh are well-known and didn't come as a surprise to the Danish publishers, but Brian Dixen finds the level of Apple's censorship efforts frustrating.

"They must have 500 people working day in and day out controlling the content. We have to get not only our apps but every single copy of our magazines approved and I wonder what will happen if we choose to make the next issue of our magazine about mobile phones in general a theme issue about Android," he says.

According to Brian Dixen it takes Apple up to 14 days to approve a new issue - which makes it very difficult to be up to date. Especially when it comes to Mediaprovider's gadget magazine "Gear" Apple's censors take their time.

"I suspect it is because we have a "babe" on the front page," says Brian Dixen from Mediaprovider which is also the publisher behind a magazine solely about the iPhone, 'iPhone Magasinet [4]'.

Because of Thanksgiving no one is appearently in the office at Apple Developer Program. This might slow down our efforts to get a comment from the company.

The tip for this story was generously given to MediaWatch by Digitale Medier [5].

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