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Apple releases apps in Google Play Store… or not

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Before you go off and purchase those newly added Apple apps in the Play Store, we would like to stop you for a second and warn you that they are more than likely fake. In fact, I am willing to put my money on it.

A said “Apple Inc” developer has uploaded a series of popular iLife and iWork applications in our beloved Google Play Store. These include Garage Band, iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers and Pages. The “apps” were just released in the Play Store with no announcement from Apple, making it seem like a very well-elaborated scam.

Not only does the developer’s name take Apple’s identity, but the developer’s website directs you to Apple’s homepage, the email is [email protected] and the descriptions seem rather convincing. To the unexperienced Android user, this may very well seem legit. But do you really think Apple would release such apps in their largest competitor’s app store? No way.

And even if they did, in some alternate universe, Apple would have done a much better job. The icons would be much better designed, for one. These simply look like cropped images taken from somewhere else. And these apps would surely serve a better purpose and not upset the few users who have downloaded them. Most of the ratings are bad, with comments mentioning the apps don’t work at all.

These happen to be expensive too (though probably not as expensive as they would be if they were real). They range from $4.98-$9.97, so save yourself from the hassle of wasting your cash and possibly missing that 15-minute refund window. DON’T BUY THEM!

We have reached out to Apple for confirmation, so we will go ahead and let you know as soon as we hear from them. Regardless, would you like some of these apps in the Play Store at some point in the future? It is more than unlikely, but we would like to know what you think of such possibilities. Our readers are mostly Android fans, but we know many of them also use Mac computers. There might be a demand Apple could potentially benefit from.

[via Reddit]

Edgar Cervantes

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72 Comments

  1. Honestly they have to be fake but I do think it is in Apple’s best interest to eventually release their apps into the Playstore considering Android’s market-share…. tho I’m quite sure their Ego wouldn’t let them do it. Also how many people would want to use Apple’s apps on Android on a regular basis I mean we all chose the Android platform for a reason.

    1. never in their best interest to do anything for competing brands. This is why 99.99% of Apple software is not sold for PCs. They sell quicktime, and on a PC it’s a joke. Itune$ is free and completely bloated. They do the bare minimum to support Windows and surely won’t support Android considering the war they are waging against the better Android devs.

      Outside of that, I found very very few Apple-made iOS apps on my ipad that I would LOVE to see on an android tablet or phone. Very few meaning none. I bet if you were to canvas the Android community about must have APPLE developed iOS apps they would love to see on Android, you’d get the same reply. hell I’ve even replaced their aging apps with better updated apps from IOS devs.

    2. Apple does NOT want to make money like google, they want to make great products(At least Steve Jobs did and now Johnny Ive does)! And for Android it is not possible to make good apps! The SDK is too bad and google will never fix this! Also Apple would make Android users happy, and they do not want that!(That would be like “The Coca Cola Company” making Pepsi “users” happy, nobody wants to make consumers of stolen soft-/hardware/whatever happy!)

      1. The troll is strong with this one.

      2. Than why does Apple do everything possible to make profits. Google only makes $15 per device, while Apple makes $317. So who here is making profits. Apple thats who. In fact Steve jobs was quoted once “I wont open factories in the states because its not profitable enough and Apple is not in the business oh helping others at the expense of profits”…Also Steve jobs and Apple never donated a single dime to charity, while Google is the second biggest tech company to donate to education after intel.

      3. “Apple does NOT want to make money”

        Can’t…stop….laughing….ohgod…ithurts…

  2. how come i cant find it on my i5? o wait. nvm, let me turn on my gnexus.

    1. Once again your comments make little sense and lend little to the conversation, Julie.

    2. I sadly thought you were talking about a computer. You confused me. All this confusion. That’s 60 damage being dealt to me.

  3. Who needs them anyway? If these apps were important to me I would have an IPhone.

    1. I disagree.
      I’d like some of my HTC widgets back, but I won’t restore my phone back to their crappy distro for them.
      Likewise, I’d like a couple of sammy widgets, but I wouldn’t buy a samsung phone for them.

      I think it would be a wise move for Apple to release their software on Android and make some money from people that choose the Android ecosystem over iOS.

      Android and iOS are significantly different platforms, a few apps wouldn’t be reason enough for many people to choose one platform over the other (unless their vital to them).

      1. I whole heartedly agree with you @peanutsrevenge:disqus. I currently have the Nexus, but I am sorely disappointed with the Clock widget. I do miss the HTC clock widget (gimmicky I know) with the animated weather and clock. It just looked more pleasing. The analog clock while very clean looking isn’t as nice I think. There are other HTC apps that I don’t wonder if HTC released them for a buck or two, if they wouldn’t make a pile from those of us who like the vanilla of the nexus, but miss the aesthetics of the HTC. HTC does make some pretty overlays, and if I could marry that with the nexus I’d be happy. The only thing that would make me happier is if Verizon quit messing around with the Nexus.

      2. Can’t you just sideload those apps? They don’t run on “other” OEM’s UI’s? I guess that’s a stupid question, huh?

        And yes, Samsung’s weather widget IS quite lovely.

        1. They are tied to the Sense framework i’m afraid

      3. Android is iOS(which is like perfect), just worse! Google stole all of the idears of iOS and combined them with their own bad idears making the os a bad OS! It is a much cheaper(made) produkt for a much cheaper price. Also the prize is the reason for most people to decide on the worse! Samsung is gonna have to rather pay much for a conract with apple for their patents and Tim Cook is gonna degrade all of apples values(that steve jobs created) or Samsung is gonna have to delete the things like “Slide to unlock” or “Pinch-to-zoom”! But it is more likely that Tim cook is gonna degrade all of the values of apple, because he did the same with HTC, Motorola and I think he is planning to to this with Google and Sony, too!

        In Europe, Samsung-tablets are already banned!

        1. Smells like troll here…

          1. What? 2 Questions: Do you have got an Android phone? If yes, would you have got enough money to buy an iPhone? At least one of the questions is gonna get answered with a no ;)

          2. You do realize that the most popular Android phone right now costs just as much as the iPhone 5. Right? Also, anyone could have went and got themselves a FREE iPhone for the past 2 years.

          3. “At least one of the questions is gonna get answered with a no ”

            Wrong. But feel free to troll try again.

          4. Very incorrect sir. You should refrain from making such moronic presumptions.

        2. In most Europe countries ipads and iphones are also banned after losing to Motorola in Germany so your point in invalid. Also Android is the superior OS according to the Department of Defense in the USA and is the best selling OS in the world.

  4. Apple providing a service to anyone but themselves? Must be fake.

  5. maybe for garage band? anyone know of a sweet alternative? I think i heard they were making protools for android which would be absolutely out of this world…

  6. Ugh, its developer/ scammers like these that give android a bad name =/

    1. nah. They’re giving Apple a bad name and taking advantage of the Google’s horrible Play Store vetting process and the ignorance of common users.

  7. For sake of a more complete article, why wouldn’t the writer have purchased one for $5 to be able to describe what you get. Sure its fake, but why not say definitively what POS you get?

    1. Why didn’t you? Why couldn’t you be the iReporter in the field? Didn’t think so. Don’t recommend others do something you wouldn’t do.

    2. What if they missed the 15 minute window? Lyk their phone just shut off or something? That would sux.

  8. They’ve been removed from the Play Store.

  9. Odd they require no special permissions to run. Yet the file sizes are pretty large for likely fakes.

  10. I’m a Google fan, don’t get me wrong. I’m buying the N4 when they get some more stock.

    But how the heck did Google let this slip in?!?!? They need to step up the market security. No I’m not worried about apps performing poorly and looking bad on android, that’s based on the opinion of the user and varies from device to device. I’m just worried about scams like this.

    1. It’s not hard for someone to create an accout with the name Apple and upload apps. As usual, Google was quick to react and pulled those off the Store.

    2. (Sorry, but)Google is not very professional! They do not test apps before “throwing” them in the store(apple does!)! That is the reason, why the apps in this market ain’t any near to perfection!!!

  11. Would never finance the progress hating patent troll. The word apple its enough not to purchase.

    1. Yeah, on Android logically, they are soo great, the processor would overload!

  12. Or Apple purposely released crap apps in the play store so reinforce the “fact” that “apps on the iOS platform just run better b.c. android is so fragmented” ….if not apple is lawyerin’ up as we speak

    1. Oooh..excellent conspiracy theory, especially since I wouldn’t put it past them to do something like that.

  13. Why on earth would anyone WANT to dl Apple apps for FREE let alone PAY for them. I can understand [well I will try] it if some of the phandroid team use the Macbook [it seems to be an unwritten rule that ALL reporter’s/journalist MUST have at least 1 apple product to enter the ‘club’.]

    Other than this there is no excuse to want to own or god forbid pour even more money into apples pot.

  14. FYI they were just pulled from the Play Store.

  15. Srry Apple, im not fan of EVILS!

  16. who knows, maybe they are real. Apple may make crappy apps then say they are horrible because Android sucks. I wouldn’t put that past Apple. Anyway, like someone mentioned, if I wanted those apps I would have got the iphones

    1. they do that with quicktime and itunez… both are horrible on the PC (on purpose)

      1. Ah!! I knew it!!

  17. Would be funny if Apple actually was behind it to sue later for hosting copies of their apps.

  18. I don’t get why you say ‘many’ phandroids use Macs ? I can assure you that I will NEVER and have never owned an apple product.

    Maybe this is the reason for the different court verdicts ? In the UK apple is a Premium product in terms of price. A Macbook is £1000 – – more than DOUBLE the price of a decent spec Window’s Laptop. So the ‘average’ UK laptop buyers have non apple gear (apart from the iPhone which of course is free on contract.

    1. It’s pretty well known that liberal media love mac and have for years. For some reason a lot of the older ones cling to the notion that “you do graphics on a mac and word processing on a PC”. The newer media peeps just think it’s cool to have a fruit themed laptop that is light as “Air” but is 2x the price and undergeared. It’s a status thing. I’ve seen it in VFX thoughout the years… luckily it’s changing due to Apple’s missteps in the pro community as a whole. I’m glad to see companies like Adobe and HP (with their killer HP-Z workstations) taking over. Apple is interested in entertainment devices now.. plain and simple. OSX-iOS merger within 3-5 years, guaranteed. It’s on their internal road map.. read up.

      1. “Liberal media?” Really? I f#*king hate Apple’s general behavior as much as all other Android fans do, but honestly, this has absolutely *NOTHING* to do with politics, or even Apple for that matter (since it’s most likely a fake).

        p.s. Sorry, if I touch a raw nerve, I just get rather irritated when people throw the term “liberal” around when they apparently have no clue WTF it really means.

        signed, your non-liberal, non-conservative, free-thinking fellow Android fan. :-)

    2. In the US, Macs start at lyk… 900USD. You can get a PC just as good as a Mac for about $400 USD. So they’re just as “premium” over here as they are over there. Oh and these Macs are the slim ones too. They’re not even the powerful ones.

      1. You are right! But the PC wouldnt be as good, the design, the software(it is very clear to people that OS X is better then windows), the aluminiumcase(instread of plastic, just like with glass and plastik at iPhone vs any Samsung device). You are TOTALLY right, but if you care on details, the mac is the much better choice!

        1. How old are you Lagax? Your grammar is a tad worse than my 7 year old. You do realize Apple isn’t the only laptop manufacturer that uses aluminum. Right? Apple’s PC’s are severely under powered when compared to Windows machines in the same price range. Take the new Macbook Pro. Go read the review on the Verge. They said there was noticeable lag throughout. Want to know why? Because Apple decided to throw in a high resolution display without a dedicated GPU. They did this because they wanted their product to be thinner. So go have fun with products built to look good instead of perform good.

          1. I agree, I currently have a MacBook Pro 13″, although I planned not to upgrade, because a tablet will do all the tasks I need on the go, and I am using a PC desktop at home. I still went to an Apple store and used the MacBook Pro 15″ with a so called Retina display (not sure why Apple used this term, because I can clearly still see the pixels), the MacBook Pro 15″ i tested was a brand new install, but it was sluggish whenever it needed some GPU power. Apple tried to make it thinner, that’s the nice way to say it, an nVidia mobile chip doesn’t take much space at all, I would say Apple wanted to save a couple dollars.

  19. So the quandary for apple. Do they rabidly attack the people who used their brand to sell fake software, or do they let it go and let unsuspecting Android users (the enemy) suffer while buying it.

    1. I think Tim Cook will have to decide that, or “Mr.Fix-it” Eddy Cue! Soo many people(Google, Samsung, HTC, Sony, …) made money with Apple’s idears, I think they really do not care! ;)

      1. lmfao retard

  20. Can’t find them on UK store

    1. They’ve been removed already

  21. I tried to download some of these apps, but they won’t install. Says only compatible with i5, 4s, and soon i4.

  22. Looks like they’ve already been removed. The link in the article no longer works and I can’t find any of the individual apps.

  23. I smell a lawsuit

  24. and…there gone

  25. What’s up with Google Play Approval Process?

    1. It doesn’t exist! Never heared that? Google is too unprofessional to do such a process! They would really have to work and not just take idears of other people!!!

      1. That has nothing to do with Google being unprofessional, it’s a philosophical question. Android is an open-source platform, if Google would turn to becoming a control freak and check every App submitted, then Google would have a hard time selling Android as an open-source platform. Apple Apps used to to be nicer than Android apps in the past, but many times nowadays when the apps are reviewed on both platforms the Android version gets a better review. Just look at Instagram (which is a die hard Apple app btw.). I agree Android is not for everyone, but it is for a lot of people. The reason is not price, high-end Android phones easily outsell iPhones and they cost about the same price, many people prefer the innovative nature of Google, which Apple used to have when Steve Jobs was around, but now lost. Just look at iOS6 it’s iOS5 with more bugs and a terrible maps app.

  26. The thing that baffles me is that when you sign up for a developer account, you need to confirm your request through your email, which means that the email they used must be real and accessible by the person who made the dev account. How would someone NOT affiliated with Apple have an *@apple.com email?

  27. I would take garage band

  28. I would say this scam would give Apple a bad name, but than again, Apple cant get much worse than it is today.

  29. Apple continues to sell overpriced crap
    Some sun enough to buy it

  30. Even on an iPhone there are better productivity apps, I was never a fan of iWork, on my MacBook I use MS Office, it’s simply more compatible and more evolved.

  31. I agree with quick office and documents to go who needs icrap?
    Also why would android users who mostly hate all things proprietary especially anything from apple download apple apps that could be malware? This has to be targeted at the less intelligent.
    They’d infect more idiots if they put it in the apple app store

  32. Stop supporting Apple its an anti competitive company.

    Make a statement dump the macbook and get an HP ultra book.
    you’ll be glad you did.

  33. somehbody getting sued.. lol

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