| Developer(s) | MiKandi |
|---|---|
| Initial release | November 29, 2009 |
| Operating system | Android |
| Size | 732 KB |
| Type | Software store |
| Website | http://www.mikandi.com |
MiKandi (pronounced as "my candy") is an online adult software store launched on November 29, 2009 and developed by MiKandi, a Seattle-based company, for Android devices. MiKandi is the world's first mobile porn app store for a mobile device.[1][2][3] The store seeks to get around restrictions placed on adult content by Apple Inc. for its iPhone and Google's Android Market by releasing the third party application store on Google Android’s open source operating system.[1] ZDNet's Jason Perlow suggested that adult content from stores such as MiKandi could be the driving force behind sales of Android phones.[4] On December 9, 2009 MiKandi reported that the market had been downloaded over 80,000 times onto Android devices since their November 29, 2009 launch.[5] MiKandi is currently only available for the Android operating system, although it is being developed for use on Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.[4][5] MiKandi applications are aimed at an adult demographic and contain explicit adult content.[5][6] Criticisms leveled at MiKandi include its lack of content and its lack of availability on other types of phones.[1][4] The company attributes its lack of content to the infancy of the adult mobile app market.[7]
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In an interview with Northwest Cable News, Jennifer McEwen, a co-founder of MiKandi, noted that all applications would be accepted as long as they were legal.[8] Although MiKandi has the potential to have high quality adult applications, many early applications have been criticized as simply packages of pictures and short videos. Since their launch, prominent adult brands have launched official uncensored applications in the app market. On November 23, 2010, Gamelink, a subsidiary of Private Media Group, launched its official application in the MiKandi App Market. Early adopter, Pink Visual, launched their first application in March 2010, followed by a second application, iTouch Her, in January 2011. Online sex and swinger personals community website Adult FriendFinder also released an official application in the market in February 2011. On March 24, 2011, the controversial application iBoobs was released in the MiKandi App Market.[9] Infamously banned from the Apple App Store in 2008[10], the full uncensored application was briefly distributed in the Android Market before it was removed in 2011. Although the free, censored version of the app is still available in the Android Market, the developers of the application reported that AdMob had stopped serving ads to the ad-supported application.
During a 2010 iPhone 4.0 OS event, the company was pushed in the spotlight when Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs noted that a “porn store” existed on Android — referring to MiKandi without using its name.[11] MiKandi reports that the app market was downloaded approximately 10,000 times in 12 hours after Jobs’ statement. MiKandi received a cease-and-desist request from Apple in March 2011 for the market’s use of the term ‘app store’. MiKandi has since changed all terms on its websites and mobile client to read ‘app market’ and now bills itself as “The World’s First App Market for Adults.” Co-founder and president Jesse Adams suggests that the company may support Microsoft’s challenge to Apple’s trademark. Says Adams, “It’s not worth it for us to fight Apple’s legal team over this by ourselves. Maybe we can file an amicus brief to Microsoft’s case.”[12]
MiKandi launched a number of updates to the app store in 2010. The most notable update was on Thanksgiving Day 2010, in which the app store released a complete design overhaul, and introduced paid app support using the app market’s own virtual currency, MiKandi Gold.[13] During this time, MiKandi released a new product called MiKandi Theater which can be accessed in the app market. The new design also indicates that the app market will allow customers to earn virtual currency by completing an offer wall.
On March 28, 2011 MiKandi released full in-app billing support to Android developers two days before Google Android[14], support that has long been anticipated in the Android developer community.