Uncensored Playboy to hit iPad in March, says Hefner

Joe Pompeo
·Media Reporter

Apple has strict rules about what sort of content can and cannot be sold through its App Store. But it looks like those rules are about to be loosened for one publisher.

"Big news! Playboy -- both old & new -- will be available on iPad beginning in March," Playboy Enterprises founder and owner Hugh Hefner tweeted Tuesday night." He clarified: "The IPad Version of Playboy will include the whole magazine from the first issue to the latest," and "Playboy on iPad will be uncensored." (See update below)

Is this a double standard on the part of Apple, which has previously rejected NC-17 content? Silicon Alley Insider thinks so: "This is pretty cool. However it shows the ridiculous double standard of Apple on its app store vis à vis racy content, which won't let pornographers or even artists show a nipple, but if you're a big media company, hey! Naked girls galore," wrote Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry.

Apple did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But the news seems a bit at odds with Steve Jobs' assertion last year, to Gawker's Ryan Tate, that the iPad would offer, among various freedoms, "Freedom from porn." (Playboy, to be fair, is of the softer variety.)

UPDATE: Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment, nor would she confirm that an uncensored Playboy iPad edition would be hitting the App Store in March, as Hefner claims.

UPDATE 2: "We are releasing a web-based subscription service with Bondi Digital Publishing that will give users access to every issue of Playboy both past and present. The service will be iPad compatible and will utilize iPad functions," a Playboy spokeswoman clarified for Forbes' Jeff Bercovici. "We also have plans to release a non-nude version of a Playboy-branded iPad app in the coming months that adheres to all of Apple's policies and guidelines."

Playboy first released an iPad app back in August, but it featured limited content and no nudity.

Earlier this month, Playboy Enterprises accepted a bid by Hefner to take the company private.

"The brand resonates today as clearly as at any time in its 57-year history," said Hefner in a statement. "I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world."

[Ed. Note: The text and headline of this article were updated from the original version.]

(Photo of Hefner: AP/Damian Dovarganes)