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Steve Jobs to porn viewers: "Buy an Android phone."
Jobs jumped right on the "porn" part of the complaint, writing "We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone ... Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." That's not just Steve in a bad mood, either. He also called out Android's porn apps earlier this month during the Q&A for iPhone OS 4.0, where he said that on Android, "Your kids can download porn. That's a place we don't want to go."
Of course, Apple itself makes the ultimate iPhone porn app, and bundles it for free with every device. It's called Safari, and I wouldn't be too surprised if Steve has given it a try. He's got nothing to lose by taking the high ground, though, because for every porn fiend who actually cares whether "there's an app for that," 2 or 3 parents will think of the iPhone as a more kid-friendly choice.
Comments
38
Subscribe to commentsbug frawgApr 20th 2010 1:42PM
It's like steve forget that the iphone has a web browser.
DavidApr 20th 2010 1:44PM
Not surprised at all from that pompous arsehat.
r3loadedApr 20th 2010 2:10PM
Well, he is plugging Android. It'd be funny if it provoked a mass migration to Android handsets :)
mvpApr 20th 2010 2:01PM
Everyday I hate this guy more and more.
David BurtonApr 20th 2010 2:02PM
This just boggles the mind.
Obviously the issue isn't porn, but censorship and whether a manufacturer can tell a consumer what they can and can't do after purchasing a product. Of course, this isn't anything new; Apple's been doing it for years. Apple users are usually portrayed (in, for example, their TV commercials over the past several years) as non-conformists, free-thinkers, and artsy. Truth is they couldn't be tethered more tightly to one company's (and one person's) dictates.
I can't help but chuckle when I think back to that long-ago Mac/1984 commercial. If "1984" rolls around, it looks like Chairman Steve will help to bring it about.
JonApr 20th 2010 3:13PM
Your comment about Jobs skirting the real issue made me think:
"Reality Distortion Field: Engaged!"
kriscolumbusApr 20th 2010 2:27PM
Your kids shouldn't have a smartphone.
fiendsanApr 20th 2010 2:33PM
exactly... and i think porn fiends should have their right to get their porn...
ClaytonApr 20th 2010 2:59PM
I think the implication that porn-fiend adults might migrate to Android, while comments like this from Jobs solidify the younger market is all backwards.
Adults have plenty of options for porn - all of which are better than a phone. However, in case anyone here doesn't remember their teenage years, the biggest porn fiends of all are adolescents - and they'll gladly take whatever they can get (personally, I remember watching scrambled cable channels for hours just so I could hear dirty audio and catch the occasional glimpse of a wavy boob... man, I would have loved the internet!)
Not all (in fact, very few) parents keep up with what Steve Jobs says. And if they don't have an Android phone themselves they may well be unaware that you can install apps from anywhere other than the app store. Most parents I know will just buy their kids the phone they ask for - and I bet there are plenty of adolescent boys out there who would gladly go with Android if they read this.
When it comes to the free market, history definitely shows that people go where the sex is. I think Steve would do himself a favor to drop the whole issue.
nicbotApr 20th 2010 3:03PM
hahaha This is amazing!
MaxApr 20th 2010 3:28PM
Hey Steve? Way ahead of you.
kendallApr 20th 2010 3:33PM
hey steve, your kids can go on your imac and download porn.
steve jobs is hated by the world.
duknuzApr 20th 2010 3:38PM
'He's got nothing to lose by taking the high ground, though, because for every porn fiend who actually cares whether "there's an app for that," 2 or 3 parents will think of the iPhone as a more kid-friendly choice.'
I seriously doubt this statement considering that pornography has been one of, if not the major driving force behind almost any communication technology since the invention of the printed word.
sodapopApr 20th 2010 3:47PM
"Apple itself makes the ultimate iPhone porn app: Safari"
I am not sure if you people are dimwitted or just spiteful of success. A web browser, while may be used to access porn sites, is not a porn app. Porn-apps present/collect and distribute the porn-content for the user without the user having to do anything. A web browser has no content until the user makes an action.
If a web browser is a porn app, then none of you are justified in complaining about Apple's app policies ever again because you can just use Safari to go get that content via the web.
Those of you who might have half an iota what the Apple business model is and what their target demographic is - it is not horny little perverts with pubs stuck to their palms and wedged in their keyboards.
Seriously, go by an Android if you don't like the iPhone... To continuously complain about something you don't even want to use is immature and unproductive.
TheGMApr 20th 2010 4:29PM
Really? So you don't have to choose to download a porn app. Does it just appear? Is it harder to search for porn on Google than to search for a porn app.
Blindly defending Apple without any clear rational is idiotic.
If Safari lets users have easy access to porn than why not let users download an app that provides the same thing?
Seems like Apple's target does include 12 year old's or else there wouldn't be so many porn sites directed just toward the iPhone. It's also clear that their target audience includes blind fanboys who somehow think that having an unfiltered Safari does not contradict Apple's claim to have a moral responsibility to prevent porn from being available on iPhone.
EvenioApr 20th 2010 6:46PM
@TheGM: "Seems like Apple's target does include 12 year old's or else there wouldn't be so many porn sites directed just toward the iPhone."
I agree with most of the rest of your post, but this part doesn't make sense to me. I'm sure the 12-year-old demographic is in Apple's sights (along with the "everyone else" demographic), but *they* don't decide how porn producers target their content. iPhone-friendly porn sites appeared because of user demand, not as part of Apple's efforts to appeal to certain demographics.
@sodapop: Well trolled, sir, well trolled. Or, if that wasn't trolling: you, and cretins like you, give legitimate Apple supporters a bad name.
- Jay referred to Safari as a "porn app" to illustrate the fact that for all Apple's blustering about porn, it will always and forever be available on their platform as long as there's a web browser there.
- Like The GM said, your notion about porn apps somehow magically appearing, unbidden, on people's phones and spewing porn at them is patently false and wilfully ignorant of how third-party software works on mobile platforms (especially the iPhone).
- We are perfectly justified in criticizing Apple's arbitrary, random and occasionally spiteful handling of App Store submissions, and suggestive content is only one minor area that barely scratches the surface of the problem. They are trying their DAMNEDEST to undermine developers' trust in the App Store as a fair marketplace for their software. Why?
- Let me clarify something for you: Apple does not give a/an [insert preferred excrement here] what anyone does with their products once they walk through the door of their home, as long as it doesn't affect public perception of Apple's platform or products. Neither Mac nor iPod nor iPhone nor iPad nor Apple TV (all two of them out there) is blocked from displaying pornographic content, because the end user is who controls what their own device displays. Apple's marketplaces, on the other hand (i.e. iTunes/App Stores, Apple Retail, etc.), are under Apple's control, so they choose to omit adult content in order to project a professional, family-friendly image.
- Pubs are traditionally far too large to stick to one's palm or keyboard without severely damaging both, and various laws and bylaws prevent them from being established in someone's home. On an unrelated note, if your experiences with masturbation lead you to believe that pubes end up stuck to everything...well, far be it from me to say "you're doing it wrong" about that sort of thing, but you're doing the hygiene part of it wrong.
- Both Steve and the customer who complained to him about "blocking of what Apple considers to be porn" missed the mark. The customer failed to understand two things: Apple's responsibility to uphold their own public image through judicious censorship of their own services (the App Store is a service Apple provides to devs and customers), and the staggering amount of iPhone-compatible porn that is freely accessible through the web browser (and don't forget that jailbreaking allows developers to create pornographic apps, as long as they don't mind the limited audience). Steve, on the other hand, went overboard in pushing the customer away to a competing platform; he should've just explained Apple's position (in as few words as possible, naturally) and reminded the customer that it was HIS job, not Apple's, to put porn on his iPhone if he so desired. Apple's "moral responsibility" is not to prevent porn from ever coming into contact with an iPhone, but to stalwartly refuse to be a party to its distribution.
To summarize: SHH.
sodapopApr 20th 2010 8:26PM
@TheGM - I am not blindly defending Apple in the least. Please explain how you came to that conclusion!? Besides citing business models and demographics, my comment called out the absurd lack of logic in calling a web browser a "porn app" simply because it can load porn. You can shove a Playboy in your coffee mug - does that make a coffee mug a porn-app? ...Only a blind person can't tell the difference between an app intended for porn and an app that can access porn.
@Evenio - Having an opposing opinion is not trolling. Maybe if you people understood words in general you wouldn't get so frustrated. I hope your Android device has a dictionary app... OH, *it does* have a dictionary-app, since it has a web browser!
To both of you - I neither said not implied porn apps suddenly appear on the a device. Sheesh. I didn't address in any matter how any app - including Safari appears on a device.
This utter lack of reasoning is EXACTLY why if you seriously believe a web browser is a porn-app, then there is no way in the world you can complain about other apps and content being denied because you can use your web browser...
JayHmmyApr 20th 2010 11:36PM
You've got to be joking. Jealous of success? Arguing about the semantics of an app vs. a browser doesn't make your opinion any more "right". The simple fact is: to say that Android is a porn provider, because they aren't limiting content to the degree that apple is, is horrifically disingenuous. If Apple was really as concerned as they seem to be about access to porn, then they should do something about that in every part of their platform, not just the app store. Otherwise, don't use such an issue to justify your actions and decisions, and definitely dont' try to "taint" your competition through slander. It is completely unnecessary, and unbecoming.
TechBloggerApr 23rd 2010 12:54PM
Good idea sodapop. I'll get the Android. Not because I don't like the iphone though. I think the Android has a cleaner interface, more professional looking interface, smarter, more customizable and has more than enough applications than I'll know what to do with.
sodapopApr 24th 2010 1:33AM
@JayHmmm - who said Android is a porn provider? ...Android is an OS. The company that makes Android is Google.