( Wired ) -- Apple has sent a clear message to any developers who try to game its iTunes App Store . Software developer Molinker has been kicked out , along with more than 1,000 of its iPhone applications . The Chinese developer had , according to some estimates , 1,000-plus applications in the store , most of which were copycat knockoffs of existing applications . When a friend of writers at the iPhoneography photography blog saw these rather poor applications consistently scoring 5-star reviews , they got suspicious . Some investigation showed that Molinker 's applications were getting many top ratings and almost nothing in the 2-to-4-star range . In fact , the only other ratings were often 1-star , and likely the only truthful feedback on the apps ' pages . iPhoneography wrote a long letter to Apple 's marketing boss , Phil Schiller , and posited that Molinker was giving out promotional codes -- essentially free copies of the applications -- in return for these 5-star reviews . In almost all cases , these reviews were poorly written , and came from customers who almost exclusively reviewed just Molinker applications . This scam was so effective that the applications regularly rose to the tops of charts . One , called ColorMagic , even made it into the Staff Favorites section of the store ( which brings some doubt as to whether these are actually staff picks at all ) . After a week of typical Apple silence , iPhoneography wrote again , and received a reply direct from Schiller : `` Yes , this developer 's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either . '' So what , you say ? Some dodgy developer got its entire portfolio chucked down the memory hole , and the App Store continues as if Molinker had never existed . First , the scale of this purging is huge : 1,000 applications represents almost 1 percent of the entire App Store offering . This alone shows that Apple is happy to do whatever it takes to keep its house clean . It also shows the power that Apple has over those that sell in its exclusive marketplace . Sure , Molinker was caught cheating , and punished , but Apple could pull the same trick on any developer , for any reason . We do n't think that it would , butiPhone developers are a nervous bunch as it is , rubbing on rabbits ' feet and crossing their fingers as their creations make their way through a fickle and seemingly arbitrary approval process . And what about the customers ? We doubt that Molinker will be refunding all the money it has made selling the applications ( plus 30 percent on top that went to Apple , and is non-returnable ) . This means that , at best , these customers can keep using their now-banned apps until a future OS update breaks them . Perhaps , though , they should have bought better applications in the first place ? This is the key . Because there is no clear way to try-before-you buy , the shareware model that works so well for computers , the ratings are absurdly important to choosing an application . Molinker 's scam , then , is almost a symptom of the App Store setup itself . Can Apple actually be blamed for the rise of the ratings scamsters ? Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
Apple kicks software developer Molinker and its 1,000 apps out of its App Store . The company says it will not be able to offer the same level of support for developers that it does now because of a new policy in which app makers must pay royalties if they want their products Writer : Move shows Apple 's willingness to clean house to maintain integrity of its store . Customers are likely able to keep Molinker apps until next operating system update .