CUPERTINO, Calif.—Lost in the scurfuffle over its banning of most sex-related apps from the App Store was Apple's decision last month to also limit the use of apps that deliver ads to users based on their location. Developers who send in such location-based apps for inclusion in the App Store could have them returned.
While the development of location-based apps is encouraged, Apple is clearly concerned about the misuse (and overuse) of the function.
"The Core Location framework allows you to build applications which know where your users are and can deliver information based on their location, such as local weather, nearby restaurants, ATMs, and other location-based information," the company said in a Feb. 3 post to its iPhone developer website.
"If you build your application with features based on a user's location," it continues, "make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store." (emphasis added)
The use of the qualifier "primarily" implies that Apple has not instituted a complete ban on the use of location-based ads, but instead is trying to prevent an avalanche of mobile spam while still allowing the delivery of legitimate location-based ads that either add value to existing content or are explicitly desired by the user.
In order to ensure that users are not bombarded by unwanted location-based ads, in fact, Apple is requiring developers to include functions so that the "user has the option of denying an application’s access to the location service data. During its initial uses by an application, the Core Location framework prompts the user to confirm that using the location service is acceptable. If the user denies the request, the CLLocationManager object reports an appropriate error to its delegate during future requests."
The trick for developers who still want to be in the App Store is to find increasingly creative ways to meet Apple's tightening criteria. That goes doubly for those who want to stimulate users with more than just food, weather reports or the location of an ATM.
