By: Steph Dlugon
Chinese app maker Molinker and their 1000+ apps (which represents approximately 1% of the total number of apps) were permanently banned from Apple’s iTunes app store for padding their stats with bogus 5 star reviews.
Most of the apps were simple variations on existing apps. Molinker apparently handed out free promotional download codes in exchange for 5 star reviews. Suspicion was raised by a reader of the iPhoneography blog. The reader noticed a clump of poorly-written, 5-star reviews for several Molinker apps. The reader emailed Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, and alerted him of the scam. Eventually Schiller replied directly and verified that the apps were removed.
Wired.com points out that “This scam was so effective that the applications regularly rose to the tops of charts. One, called ColorMagic, even made it into the Staff Favorites section of the store.”
While Molinker’s removal from the app store may serve as a cautionary tale to other developers who go to great lengths to beef up their ratings, it also exposes yet another flaw in Apple’s approval process.
