back to article Apple kicks prolific developer out of iTunes shop

Developer Molinker has been kicked out of the iTunes store for posting too many positive reviews, reducing the size of the store by almost one per cent. Molinker is a Chinese developer who, before the weekend, had more than a thousand applications listed on the iTunes store. Now they have none at all, after an e-mail to Apple' …

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  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    Google giveth, and the Google taketh away

    Itunus: chapter 4, 19-22

  2. Stef 2
    Jobs Horns

    Heil Jobs

    It's his world ^H^H^H^H^H^H app. store, you just live in it.

  3. Paul Shirley
    Flame

    waiting for Google to get the hint

    The Android market is currently being spammed daily with the same sort of shit and I'd dearly love to see it at least hidden in a crapware category. For once Apple do the right thing, now we just need to prod Google into doing it.

    1. Chris Pearson

      if only.

      Hopefully now apple have taken the 1st step Google will too. Then they can fix the search....

  4. phil 21

    >winky

    apple giveth, shirley ?

  5. Jimmy Floyd
    Jobs Halo

    Obviously

    "...or offering any opportunity for appeal."

    How dare you question the judgement of The Steve! Appeals would only be necessary if the possibility existed that He might be slightly less than consistently correct, which is a ludicrous notion.

    Resistance is futile.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Look, this is Apple....

    ...they expect people to do as they're told. Why on earth would anyone expect and explanation?

    Evil Steve, yes I know it's the wrong one!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Prophetic.

    There's never a blonde hammer thrower when you need one is there...

    Paris, I doubt she could pick up the hammer, let alone launch it.

  8. Ian 54
    WTF?

    my shop, my rules...

    I don't see why Apple has to explain to Molinker. If I run a shop and decide that I'm going to stop stocking, say, XYZ batteries because they are inferior copies of Duracell, my decision. Do I then have to explain to XYZ? Not as far as I can see..

    move along, nothing to see here

  9. Anton Ivanov
    Flame

    News at ten..

    A developer? Faked his own reviews? Yeah... Nothing new here. I am surprised they have had only one busted so far.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Ian 54

    Put your example on it's head.

    Imagine your shop is Tesco, and you've decided not to stock Heinz. Heinz maybe a little pissed off, and as a customer it's not like you can go elsewhere because everywhere else went bust when Tesco moved in a couple of years back. As you say though Tesco don't need to explain nothing to no one.

  11. SImon Hobson Bronze badge
    Thumb Down

    RE: my shop, my rules...

    >> I don't see why Apple has to explain to Molinker. If I run a shop and decide that I'm going to stop stocking, say, XYZ batteries because they are inferior copies of Duracell, my decision. Do I then have to explain to XYZ? Not as far as I can see..

    But in the IWorld, once you stop selling XYZ batteries, XYZ can't go and sell them via any other shop in the high street - you've locked people down so hard that they can't buy from any shop but you.

    If iPhone users could go and buy their apps from anywhere without having to take risks by unlocking their phone, then it wouldn't matter - but here Apple decide if you have a business, and can decide to end it without appeal without warning, explanation, or right of appeal. I don't like what this guy appears to have done, but that's not an excuse for Apple's behaviour.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    It's called "gaming the system"

    When someone "games the system" - this is what had traditionally happened in social networking circles for a decade.

    This is nothing more than a social networking system with $$$ attached.

  13. Sean Timarco Baggaley
    Flame

    @Simon Hobson:

    "But in the IWorld, once you stop selling XYZ batteries, XYZ can't go and sell them via any other shop in the high street - you've locked people down so hard that they can't buy from any shop but you."

    Er, yes they can. Symbian and Windows Mobile have had third-party developers producing stuff for those platforms for *years*. (And there's Android too.) None of those platforms are closed. None of those platforms have a review-process in place in their stores.

    If you aren't writing portable code, you deserve to go bust.

    If you are putting all your company's eggs in one basket, you deserve to go bust.

    The iPhone is NOT the only fruit; it's merely the only phone to be designed by one.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    you are all wrong

    This is simply a case of Apple changing the goal posts.

    What kind of a contract is it that a developer has that can be torn up by apple and re-written at the drop of a hat without any disclosure.

    This kind of heavy handed business practise may be encouraged in the USA but it is more likely to fall foul of competition and fair contract law here in the more civilised eurozone.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Horns

      Well, duh....

      'What kind of a contract is it that a developer has that can be torn up by apple and re-written at the drop of a hat without any disclosure.'

      An Apple Contract of course..

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      RE: you are all wrong → #

      Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 8th December 2009 16:25 GMT --- This kind of heavy handed business practise may be encouraged in the USA but it is more likely to fall foul of competition and fair contract law here in the more civilised eurozone.

      That is why The Internet was created by the United States. (The iTunes store is just another internet presence... you don't like it, choose another of millions of internet stores to sell your goods... when self-regulation does not work, the market regulates quite effecively.)

      America encourages people to: take risks, find a simple elegant solution, manage themselves (i.e. self-regulate), and when self regulation fails, the market regulates by not giving you any money in exchange for your services/ideas/products.

      The "civilised eurozone" encourages people to: not take risks, choose complex political solutions, submit themselves to the government for management, and sends people to prison/concentration camps/gulags when the government considers your actions 'uncivilized".

      One need not wonder why Fascism & Communism took hold so easily - an unhealthy trust of government (which has the power of the gun among a "civilized" people who do not.) Will an Islamofascist Caliphate take root at "civilised eurozone" as easily in 20 more years?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        A Daily Fail reader writes

        "Will an Islamofascist Caliphate take root at "civilised eurozone" as easily in 20 more years?"

        I wondered when Melanie Phillips was going to show up on El Reg.

        Hi Mel! Love your blogs, sweetie.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        AMERICA, FUCK YEAH.

        The only acceptable response to this post is quiet applause.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Only fruit.....

    "The iPhone is NOT the only fruit; it's merely the only phone to be designed by one."

    and purchased by vegatables.

    1. Kevin Dwyer

      @ Burnblaze

      Oh, Yes,

      But the "Vegatables" as you describe them could probably spell correctly

  16. Aly Barr

    Pointless sentence to use a word I made up

    Goodbye to one thousand craplications.

    1. Moonwolf
      FAIL

      Equally pointless comment to show cross-referencing abilities

      Already been used by someone else according to Google - remember, if you didn't want to be caught, you probably shouldn't have done it!

  17. magnetik
    WTF?

    Eh!?

    Over 1,000 apps from one developer? That's more than two apps *per day* this "developer" was releasing. Anyone with half a brain has to comprehend that there's no development company on earth that could deliver that volume of apps unless they were a) stealing others' source code or b) re-releasing the same crap with slight variations over and over. Then they faked their ratings by creating accounts and rating only their own apps?

    This is a blatantly obvious case of abuse of the app store, why are people bitching about Apple? Would any of you point fingers at eBay for removing a seller who sells fake Rolexes claiming they were originals? Likewise if an eBay seller set up thousands of accounts and rated themselves high would you consider that seller trustworthy or expect eBay to remove them?

  18. Roger Garner
    Stop

    The flip side...

    Apple might have told Molinker what they were doing and why... if you were Molinker would you 'fess up and tell a news outlet the reason you've been given and confirm your company's possibly dodgy rep or say 'we know nuffin, move along... nothing to see here...'

  19. UkForest

    @ AC 21:09

    "That is why The Internet was created by the United States"... Was it now!?!?!?!?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Re: @ AC 21:09 #

    AC - "That is why The Internet was created by the United States"

    UkForest - Was it now!?!?!?!?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Suite

    "The Internet Protocol Suite resulted from research and development conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the early 1970s..."

    Live Free or Die...

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