Apple Store South Africa

I agree. Read the quote in Varjak Paw's post and contact your government representative.

http://www.fpb.org.za/media-centre-fpb/press-release/111-film-publication-board- welcomes-the-launch-of-itunes-in-south-africa11

Here is the Press Release from the Film and Publications Board in South Africa, which rates all Music, Movies and Games. At present, the iTunes Store South Africa contains music (not all) and some movies (limited selection), no games (working, as the press release states) and no Books (well no purchaseable commercial books).

PS. The other poster was talking about the physical Apple Stores, which are NOT official Apple stores, but authorised stores, e.g. iStore (Core Group) and DigiCape (2nd supplier). The iTunes Store is (and has been) always the official Apple iTunes store.

Funny this seems to be the "explanation" handed around, however it does not make logical sense in that Apps for other devices are freely available that are not available for Apple. If it were a censorship issue it would apply to all suppliers, not only to Apple.!

How many games are available in the Marketplace in South Africa? Rovno may have pursued approval through their own means to get approval.

Apple is actually to blame as Sony, Microsoft have been selling Games legally through their Microsoft XBOX Live Marketplace and Sony's Playstation Store with small mini games, large full releases games all distributed via online methods only. This means that Apple simply hasn't yet felt the need to contact the FPB (as reported by them) officially to start the store's games section.

At least now we know they are in talks, so this section so open in the next few months as soon as the talks have completed with Apple Luxemborg (the offical South Africa contact point).

As you can clearly see from the press release from the FPB above, Apple discussion boards have often blamed the FPB for a complicated process and the reason for the missing store, however they clearly state that less than one month after receiving Apple's application, they processed it and they were able to self-publish. This is completely contrary to what most discussion board members with lots of "points" always quote.

Vivbud wrote:

What I do not understand is your agressive defense if you are not involved with Apple.

Perhaps he/she simply likes Apple products and understands that it is not always up to Apple whether products appear in certain markets.

In my opinion Apple would only open a store - brick and mortar or online - under two conditions:

1. They feel they can make a profit from it and
2. There are no legal impediments to doing so.

I defend nothing, as you will see if you read my previous posts on the subject. I just also can't defend people continuing to whine about it in these forums where we, who are all just fellow users, can do nothing about the situation.

What bugs me is that forum members keep saying stuff like: "There isn't a market for games in South Africa" – we have millions of games consoles and games here, so that's a lie –, or "the publisher hasn't selected the games category for South Africa" – which is of course utter falsehood and nonsense, as you can't select what doesn't exist (disabled) –, or even stuff like "Legal problems" – where I've spoken to the FPB from the beginning and they have always maintained that Apple never contacted them in the past (until recently as part of a multi-country roll-out).

So any replies from anyone here in the discussion forum without a quotable link or press release is simply a guess or just hearsay on their part. They also don't know actually, so take everyone's opinions here with a pinch of salt, as even people with lots of points do not know what is the real story, since none of them work for Apple.

Of course its up to Apple where they sell their products. And there are Apple Stores here in SA, it is iTunes that is pathetic. The arrogance of some people who do not sit on the same side of the fence. To those who have devices and can purchase apps to fully enjoy them, you have no place passing judgement on those of us who have devices that are limited due to whichever power that is that makes the decisions as what it available to us.

Thank you for the only sane voice on this subject. Most of the other posts are from arrogant Apple fans who probably have never had the need for an App or game they could not purchase. I will check here from time to time until either we have a decent iTunes store full of good things to purchase.

I don't recall passing judgements about you or anyone in South Africa in this thread. I have in fact visited South Africa have an uncle who has lived there, and would like to visit again.

What I would like to know is why you feel Apple would want to deny you access to these games.

I see you now have a second post running on this subject, to which I unknowingly replied I think it a touch over the top to write about arrogant Apple fans; it simply isn't within our remit to influence these matters. But it is within yours ... and it is up to you to encourage Apple to take a greater interest in your market.

Message was edited by: seventy one

A question posed by all of us Apple users here in SA....? And of course we welcome you to visit again and don't forget to bring your iPhone and iPad and try to buy a few Apps whilst here.

Oh yeah. Such great words of wisdom. Have you ever tried to get a response from Apple. I have emailed them several times to no avail. Wait, not even an acknowledgement that they have received my email.

And if you write in similar vein to what I read here, I'm not at all surprised they don't reply.