• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 9, 2010

Apple has traded in its ban of Flash apps for a ban on fart apps. In announcing today that it's loosening restrictions on third-party developer tools and issuing guidelines for the App Store, the tech giant should ease some of the long-standing criticism it's drawn for heavy-handed control of apps.

Was Apple's newfound embrace of openness prompted by pressure from federal antitrust regulators looking in on Apple's practices, or a growing threat from Android and its fast-growing and far less tightly vetted Android Market app storefront? Or simply taking to heart the feedback from developers, as Apple explained in its statement Thursday?

Whatever the case, Apple does need to keep developers happy to keep the flow of popular apps coming that help to drive sales of the iPhone, iPod and iPad. With its steps to block the use of Flash and other types of software in iOS apps, the apparent effort to keep outside ad networks off Apple mobile devices, and its perplexing app approval process, Apple had roiled the developer community.

At the same time, the rise of Android as a worthy rival to Apple's iOS has made the Google platform an increasingly attractive alternative for developers and advertisers. As with "Antennagate" earlier this summer, Apple finally responded to the collective pressure by showing more flexibility around a perceived problem -- in this case, onerous and perplexing app policies.

Apple wins points especially for the lighter, plain-speaking tone it took in laying out its rules for getting apps approved. This included renouncing fart apps as well as invoking Justice Potter Stewart's "I know it when I see it" test for defining pornography to describe its approach to deciding when an app has crossed the line from acceptable to rejected. That, of course, may not help clear up questions around some sexy apps that skirt the line, but Apple is at least admitting some calls will be subjective.

"It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store," states the App Store review guidelines matter-of-factly. True to its controlling nature, though, Apple also makes a bid to forestall future outcries about censorship or arbitrariness by noting that app rejections can be appealed to a review board. But "if you run to the press and trash us, it never helps." Got it?