Has Apple Lost Its Mind?

This might be slightly off topic, but there is a marketing angle to this.

Apple has been getting a lot of slack recently in the blogosphere and even the mainstream press for it’s monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive behavior. Apple, however, is not truly a monopoly and so this is not illegal. If customers don’t like how restrictive the iPhone is, or how they can’t buy Mac OS X and install it on their own hardware, they can take their money elsewhere and buy any of the hundreds of other phones or buy a Windows box. All’s fair in that respect.

But the real fascinating story here is how a brand who was super-respected for proving that customers will pay more if you give them a truly magical experience is quickly losing its shine. The speed at which this is happening is incredible.

I logged into iTunes tonight, and noticed there was an update to one of my iPod Touch applications – PageOnce, a personal productivity application. But trying to download it, Apple gave me a pop-up warning that this application required me to certify that I was 17 years or older due to adult content.

This took me by surprise. A personal productivity application, that allows me to check all of my various phone, credit card, bank accounts, air miles, and other points card balances in one place – is flagged for adult content.

And when I went into the iTunes Store to visit the application page for more information, this is what I see:

Let me get this straight… “realistic violence”, “horror/fear themes”, “cartoon/fantasy violence”, “alcohol, tabacco or drug use or references”, “mature/suggestive themes”, “profanity or crude humor”, and “intense sexual content or nudity”.

APPLE, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING WITH THIS!

It’s a productivity application. It contains none of those things. Your entire content ratings system looks like a joke. It’s one thing to annoy developers with your odd application rejection practices. But the above screen shot makes you look downright incompetent and foolish to your customers. Really. You’ve dropped a few notches of respect with me tonight. I’m truly stunned.

I know this one thing will probably get lost among all the other things Apple is doing right now to destroy it’s once stellar brand. But it’s a perfect example of taking a good thing and ruining it.

And I feel sorry for the people at PageOnce. A really useful web site and application.