Playboy is now in the Apple App Store

Playboy has introduced a new app in the Apple App Store, but it is not what you think. Apple's ban on pornography has forced the magazine publisher to take a different tack with its app. Josh Schollmeyer, Playboy's Director of Digital Content, says that with the ban, he asks his photographers to bring one of three things to a picture. "It has to be romantic, whimsical or sexy," he said. While the app itself is free, to get the monthly content requires a subscription that costs $1.99 per month or $19.99 for the year.

If you don't get the type of pictures that Playboy is known for, what do you get? For one, you get content about The Good Life (travel, food, drink, cars, gear, style) which will be mixed in with celebrity interviews and articles. For example, the current content on the app includes an interview with music businessman Clive Davis and a twenty question style interview with Girls creator/actress Lena Dunham. Schollmeyer points out that Playboy is trying to make thing media-friendly so that a 5,000 word story is easy on the eyes when viewing it on a small screen.

Speaking of easy on the eyes, there will still be pictorials, just not ones with nude pictures. This month Playmate Redux offers a look (clothed that is)at former 2001 Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick; and God Given Gorgeous is another feature where photographers photograph models that represent "a new standard of beauty." A pictorial called Miss Social selects the winner of a monthly online social media contest to be the subject of a photographer while Esquire's former feature, Me In My Place shows celebrities at home.

While the app will probably become available for Android users, don't expect any changes even with the open source OS. Overall, Schollmeyer says that the Apple iPhone app is a test for what Playboy does with tablets. "What you are seeing on the iPhone is really going to be a pilot program for what we do on the tablet, hopefully within the next year or so," he says.

source: USAToday