SaudiMac Saudi Apple Macintosh Users
We have noticed a lot of Arabic developers who are currently scamming App Store customers. They have been active for months and Apple has done nothing about them. This Arabic forum post is warning from the following 3 developers: zvoid, a.d.h media and gulf apps.
I looked into one of these developers, Gulf Apps and the first thing we noticed is that their apps leads to a website that doesn’t exist http://www.gulf.apps.com/.
Now to take a closer look at their Apps
Sinbad Adventures
App Store http://itunes.apple.com/app/id376650478?mt=8
Appcomments http://appcomments.com/appdetails/مغامرات_سندباد
The app “مغامرات سندباد” cost $3.99 and claims that it provides full episodes. It is only 0.4MB.
According to a comment on the Saudi Arabia store the App only have 7 videos and all are youtube videos. Gulf Apps most likely do not own a copyright for that cartoon as well.
As of July 11th 2010 the App is already on the top 11 paid iPhone Apps in Saudi Arabia.
Multiple reviewers in Kuwait confirmed it.
Multiple reviewers in Qatar confirmed it.
Mr Bean Clips
App Store http://itunes.apple.com/app/id376209669?mt=8
Appcomments http://appcomments.com/appdetails/مقاطع_مستر_بن
Most likely a youtube app. $3.99 and 0.4MB as well.
iPhone Secrets
App Store http://itunes.apple.com/app/id372597551?mt=8
Appcomments http://appcomments.com/app/أسرار_الأيÙون
False app description. All reviewers agree that the app is a scam.
Quran App
App Store http://itunes.apple.com/app/id374604167?mt=8
Appcomments http://appcomments.com/app/تÙسير_القران_الكريم
Comment chaos in this app. Apple should easily track them by IP to verify that some of the commenters were the same person. As for the app it’s extremely ugly and unusable, something Apple would easily reject it if their reviewers even understood Arabic.
Conclusion
Almost all of the other apps by “Gulf Apps” appear to be of extreme low quality and possibly violating some copyright.
Our advice is to avoid all Apps by “Gulf Apps” at once.
Also we need to report this to Apple at once so send an email to iTunes Connect: itunesconnect@apple.com and alert them of that scammer.
We also recommend avoiding apps by “ZVOID” and “A.D.H. Media” until we look into these ppps at once.
Apple also needs to improve their app review process and hire Arabic speaking reviewers if they want to allow only high quality apps in the app store.
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Sindbad Adventures says it PROVIDES full episodes and that it does. It doesn’t say anywhere that all the videos are within the app. So as a matter of fact, it provides you with the links that in return provide you the videos. The price tag is a bit out of line though.
according to a review on the saudi app store it only had 7 videos.