Apple reinstates banned Simply Beach swimwear app

Designer swimwear retailer Simply Beach announced that Apple has quietly reinstated its swimsuit shopping app for the iPhone, one of roughly 5,000 applications removed from the App Store in the wake of the computing giant's crackdown on sexually-themed software. Simply Beach was more vocal in its opposition to Apple's actions than most, issuing a scathing press release criticizing the App Store purge--according to Simply Beach, Apple had already deleted its application prior to sending the company an email claiming the app contained "overtly sexual content." In the release, Simply Beach parent firm Simply Group's managing director Gerrard Dennis notes "The email arrived straight to a junk mail folder on Friday and to be honest we thought it was a spam joke. We then checked iTunes to find the app had in fact been removed. It seems like political correctness gone mad. It's just women in bikinis, swimsuits and kaftans."

In a follow-up release, Simply Beach reports that developer partner Explodingphone discovered the swimsuit app was restored to the App Store sometime Tuesday night, adding that Apple has not yet reached out to the firm to discuss its deletion. "Being charitable to Apple, maybe they made a genuine error," Dennis says. "However, if that were the case I think an apology would have been forthcoming. We have heard nothing from Apple on the subject."

Apple removed thousands of iPhone and iPod applications, reportedly in response to complaints from consumers and developers alike. "Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them," an Apple spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple." Some developers speculate that sexually-themed software now represents as much as a third of the App Store's 140,000-plus applications, and argue that the proliferation of adult apps hampers discoverability of rival applications. But rather than striking all potentially objectionable apps for good, some developers are lobbying for the creation of a so-called App Store "red light district" for applications that contain overtly sexual content.

For more on the Simply Beach app reinstatement:
- read this release

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