Apple has initiated its cleaning process of the App Store, with a report now claiming that the Cupertino based company has already removed almost no less than hundreds of thousands of apps which have violated the guidelines, but somehow made it to the store.
In a report by TechCrunch, they have stated that Apple is mostly looking to take down clones and spam apps, but at the same time, the company is also pulling apps which were not supposed to be there in the first place. This is similar to the case of those created with a template or an app generation service.
This is similar to the case of RSS apps or clones of the popular game Flappy Bird which can be created with app generation services which are in most cases free to use. With small notifications to graphics and gameplay, there are thousands of Flappy Bird clones which made it to the App store last year, and Apple wants to take them down as soon as possible.
Apple has stated in its store guidelines, “Come up with your own ideas. We know you have them, so make yours come to life. Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own. In addition to risking an intellectual property infringement claim, it makes the App Store harder to navigate and just isn’t fair to your fellow developers.”
Furthermore, Apple is also trying to oust spam apps which haven’t been downloaded in a long time. The reason is that the company wants to provide users with a modern experience on their devices.
Another important thing to note is that Apple is also pulling out apps which are not 64-bit compatible. This means Apple is making the switch to 64-bit apps only with the iOS 11 slated to launch this year.
Apple is also rolling out a new App Store experience with iOS 11 this year. The cleaning the store and removing clones and spam apps are a part of company’s efforts to offer high quality content to its users. The company has not provided any statements on this cleaning process, so it remains to be seen as to how many apps are actually removed from the store.
