Apple Resumes Removal of Iranian Apps

Apple, which had removed some Iranian apps a few months ago, has resumed the removal of certain Iranian applications from the App Store, citing U.S. sanctions as the reason. According to various technology sites in Iran, including Zoomit and the English site Financial Tribune, apps such as Delion (food delivery service), Digikala (online store), AloPik (motorcycle delivery service), Takhfifan (daily discount site), and Alibaba (travel agency) have recently been removed by Apple from the App Store. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, tweeted: "11% of the smartphone market in Iran belongs to Apple; respecting consumer rights is a principle that Apple has not adhered to today." According to the New York Times on Friday, although Apple does not officially have a store in Iran and does not offer its specific software in the country, millions of iPhones have been smuggled into Iran from cities like Dubai and Hong Kong, and Iranian programmers have developed numerous applications for local users that are offered through Apple stores abroad. Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi has announced legal action regarding the removal of the apps. Firouz Aghazadeh, the senior IT manager of Digikala, stated that he received a call from Apple a few days ago explaining the reason for the removal. For some Iranian companies, a message was sent prior to the app removal. In this message, Apple informed some Iranian companies that it could not activate the desired application in the App Store. According to U.S. laws and sanctions, the App Store cannot host applications from sanctioned countries; however, this policy may change in the future. If these sanctions are lifted, the removed software may again be available. Zoomit, a reputable technology site in Iran, quoted Mahdi Taghizadeh, CEO and founder of the Delion food service, as saying: "There is no order in Apple’s new move. Although the Delion app and some others have been removed from the App Store, many Iranian apps are still available in this store." He added: "We work hard and must always fight, and now this issue has arisen where no iPhone users in Iran can download their favorite apps. Imagine if you couldn't download the Uber app in America." Taghizadeh has protested Apple's action online and launched a campaign on Twitter to pressure the company. A similar action occurred in Bahman 1395 (February 2017) when Apple began removing some Iranian apps from the App Store. One of the most popular Persian apps, the Digikala app, was also removed by the company. However, a few months later, after negotiations between some Iranian companies and Apple, these apps returned to the App Store. At that time, it was stated that Digikala used the Shetab payment system, which is completely separate from international systems and theoretically does not comply with Apple’s terms and conditions, and this was used by Apple as a justification for removing the app. In September 2016, Apple had lifted some restrictions on Iranian developers to publish applications in its store, but it seems these restrictions have now been re-applied to Iranian programmers. It should also be noted that due to the lack of official access to the App Store for Iran, developers usually register their applications in the App Store through third countries and make them available to users. According to the latest statistics, Iranians own more than 40 million smartphones, of which over seven million are Apple iPhones. Some Iranian media have reported that more than 100,000 iPhones are smuggled into Iran monthly. Meanwhile, over 15% of the smartphone market in Iran is held by Apple, which does not operate officially in the country. Beyond the smuggling of Apple phones in Iran and the lack of official representation, one of the main problems for Iranian consumers using Apple phones is the lack of Persian and Iranian applications on these devices and the sporadic removal of Iranian companies' and startups' programs from the App Store. For this reason, many Iranian consumers prefer to use Android products (which are much cheaper than most Apple products) because many Iranian applications are available for these products, and beyond Google Play, consumers can also download and install many Iranian applications, especially new startup programs, from Cafe Bazaar. However, one of the biggest problems for these applications is their lower security compared to Apple products.