A little under a year ago, Apple began cleaning up its app store, seemingly banning app after app that had any form of titillation. Citing complaints from customers who found the apps degrading and upset about what children were able to see, the company vigorously purged hundreds of apps that focused on subjects such as women in swimsuits.
But porn is like water. It finds a way into everything and is actually thriving on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
From live interactions with models and wannabe porn stars to sex toy tie-ins, the adult entertainment industry has invaded the iOS world. And if you follow the consumer electronics space at all, that’s probably not a big surprise.
Porn, after all, is often the first to explore new tech frontiers. It was largely responsible for VHS tapes winning out over Beta and it established a foothold in the Internet long before corporate America began to realize the Web’s potential.
Apple doesn’t sanction any porn apps or let them anywhere near the app store, but its inclusion of features like FaceTime chat have given the industry a back door into iDevices.
Sites like iP4Play let iPhone 4 users chat with a variety of models, much like the 1-900 phone sex lines of yore. With visual chat enabled, though, the product is much more graphic.
It’s also more expensive. The site charges anywhere from $20 for a five-minute session to $90 for a half-hour one. And, it turns out, it’s exceedingly popular.
Travis Falstad, managing director of iP4P, says the company has seen revenues grow at an average of 30 percent per week since launch—and international adoption has been spiking recently as well.