The application approval process at Apple's App Store has come under the scanner yet again - after the company recently announced the removal of as many as 5000 apps that supposedly contained "overtly sexual content."

With Apple's ban on the `sexy' apps making headlines, its double-standard handling of the app approval process - the oft-debated, unfathomable approval and rejection of apps - has drawn the ire of both the critics as well as the app developers!

In an attempt to clarify Apple's app approval policy, Phillip Schiller, chief of worldwide product marketing at Apple, said during the course of an interview with the New York Times that the recent ban has been applied after taking into consideration the `source' and `intent' of apps.

Apple claims that the `sexy' apps ban has been imposed with the aim of keeping the App Store a "family-friendly" place, especially with kids' interests in mind. However, what is surprising is that while Apple removed unknown apps like Strip Simon, Video Strip Poker and the like; "previously published material" from big-name companies like Playboy and Sports Illustrated has not been taken down!

It is evident that the new app approval policy's rigorous constraints actually give the shaft to independent developers; thereby making the already-complicated and contentious app approval process a still more complex turn!