Yesterday we posed the question: is the App
Store more or less mature than a 7th grade game of truth or dare? Okay, so
that wasn’t the exact wording, but the point remains; with each and every new
urine-themed game and babe-ranking app that makes it into the App Store’s Top
100, the entire enterprise threatens to devolve into a portal for one-trick
ponies and gimmicky titles geared towards that broad demographic known simply
as ‘the immature.’ But how does this impact on the application marketplace
kickstarted by iTunes? Is it a serious means of distributing quality games or
is it merely a network perpetuated by frat boys and pubescent males?
On the one hand, companies are not in habit
of wasting cash. So it stands to reason that all these free juvenile apps were
either commissioned on the sound reasoning that consumers would either buy the
full-price version or succumb to the in-game adverts. Either way companies are
banking on the viability of a market geared towards those that appreciate
having toilet humour and hilarious insults in the palms of their hands. And
judging by the fact that the number of these apps is only increasing, it’s safe
to say, for now, that these low-brow games are a part of the App Store (and by extension
iPhone) culture.
On the other hand, none of those juvenile apps
listed in the previous post made a ‘full version’ presence on the ‘Top 100 paid
apps’ list (that’s not to say that folks aren’t shelling out for these titles,
as iBeer and More Toast make an appearance, among others). But when it comes to
shelling out cash, the majority of folks are doing so for more sophisticated
apps. And so perhaps the presence and apparent success of such apps is simply a
matter of what’s freely available (after all who wants to dish out two bucks
just to find out they have the sex appeal of an octogenarian—see ‘What’s your
Sex Appeal’ app in the previous post)
But no matter how you look at it, juvenile
titles have gone hand in hand with the iPhone since day one (think iFart) and
that connotation is growing with each and every ribald app added to the Top 100
lists. Should they choose, Apple could censor such apps from the lists being as
they are the only ones who are privy to the criteria and no one would be the wiser.
But they don’t. For while the iPhone is marketed as a do-all device that has an
app for everything, the popular apps’ lists themselves eerily reflect what
people are really using their so called ‘smartphones’ for. That is, so long as it’s free.
The iPhone is popular and powerful enough to support a serious gaming marketplace but it’s also popular and purile enough to satisfy the needs of low-brow technophiles as well. And so while I
wouldn’t expect to see Pee Monkey Toilet Trainer on a ‘There’s an app for that’
iPhone commercial, you can rest assured that by the time the big-budget, must have games reach the touch screen smartphone, you’re baser instincts will be well looked after.
