Open or closed, porn finds a way to mobile

When mobile “adult application marketplace” MiKandi announced it was launching the first adult portal and mobile client available for Android devices, many were quick to point out that this would never happen in Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) walled garden iPhone. Even though Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and most certainly Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) don’t endorse this new entrant, MiKandi was able to bring its porn to Android because it was an open platform.

That is one issue that makes mobile porn an interesting scenario. VZW and other operators claim they can’t fully embrace openness because they have to protect their customers. A child getting access to porn consistently comes up as an example they use to condemn uninhibited openness. In a closed environment, they can better control it. Not to mention the fact that, despite the business opportunity, no carrier wants to be known as the “porn pioneer.”

But now, even the ultimate walled garden, the iPhone, has inadvertently let porn aboard, making the open argument less relevant. The iPhone Sex App Store, disguised cleverly as a magic store on mobile Safari, came online yesterday on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Launched by Maria Gara, a magician/adult model, the store works without jail-breaking or hacking required. The technology behind it is pretty interesting, too. According to a PC Magazine report, the store houses “virtual apps” that are indistinguishable from real, local apps. Through the iPhone’s unfettered Web access, users can cache Web apps locally and, on the Sex App Shop, even browse and pay for apps from an entire catalogue.

Magician Steve Sheraton, who claims that magicians and pornographers are always at the forefront of technology, initially came up with this offline-Web-app trick to set up a real iPhone magic store. When Apple’s approval process included too many speed bumps for his magic apps that rely on misleading and confusing users, he turned to virtual apps. Local URLs display the apps, meaning they can even run in airplane mode (if you’re willing to risk it in the air).

Both the iPhone App Store and Android Market block developers from offering adult content apps or even integrating it into other applications, and operators around the world have put efforts in place to protect consumers from mobile porn. But closed system or not, that won’t stop users 18 or older from finding alternatives like MiKandi and the Sex App Shop. Porn represents a huge business opportunity today – maybe not one that will take off by word of mouth, but one that will get usage nonetheless. Open or closed, it’s only a matter of time.

E-mail me at sarah.reedy@penton.com.