Apple removes 'Bang With Friends' from the App Store
After less than 10 days on the App Store, Apple this past week gave the boot to "Bang With Friends", an app that seemingly runs afoul of Apple's efforts to keep the App Store as reasonably wholesome and free of smut as possible.
In case you're unfamiliar, "Bang With Friends" is an app that seeks to match up Facebook users with friends who share a common interest in, oh, how shall I phrase this, amorous relations.
This past weekend, "Bang With Friends" co-founder and CEO Colin Hodge confirmed the app's removal with Valleywag. Hodge did, however, note that he's currently working with Apple to get it back in the App Store.
While it stands to reason that the app was removed due to its mature nature, Hodge says that Apple hasn't yet given him a reason as to why the app was removed.
Interestingly enough, TechCrunch this past Friday ran an article detailing how Zynga -- the purveyors of the ever-popular "Words With Friends" app -- recently served the developers of "Cupid With Friends" with papers indicating that the name of their app infringes upon Zynga's trademark.
Zynga's letter reads in part:
Zynga has consistently used and promoted the 'WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks together as a family and, as a result of Zynga's extensive marketing efforts and commercial success, the 'WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks is strongly identified by consumers with Zynga's reputation for quality.
That being the case, perhaps its also possible that the removal of "Bang With Friends" has something to do with Zynga's efforts to protect its intellectual property.
That theory is somewhat flawed, however, to the extent that the app is still available for download on the Google Play store.
In any event, while Apple's App Store rejection and approval process is no longer the hot-button controversy it once was, every so often Apple gives us a little reminder of its desire to keep the App Store clean. For instance, Apple this past January temporarily removed the popular photo-based 500px app due to concerns that users could too easily use it to search for nude photos. One week later, the App was reinstated after developers added a new feature enabling users to flag inappropriate content for removal.
