YNOT – There are two things about which iPhone application developers agree: Gaining acceptance into Apple’s online app store provides a distribution boost…and achieving acceptance is challenging, at best. The latter is particularly true for any app with an “adult” twist. Applications that make fart sounds or promote baby shaking seem to cruise through Apple’s curious and arcane review process, but develop an app that displays the slightest hint of human reproductive anatomy? Hit the bricks, bucko—you can’t sell that here.The developers of the CutestGirls app—which last week appeared in the App Store after surmounting a rigorous 12-week approval process—should receive a few props for seeing the odyssey through. Although CutestGirls displays less skin than Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit app that received approval only weeks earlier, a spokesman for CutestGirls developer Nucato AVV told YNOT Apple’s censors repeatedly rejected CutestGirls because “content like that is not acceptable.”

Not that the censors were forthcoming about why the content was unacceptable, according to Liam Colins, director of new business development for developer Nucato. The tennis match that ensued was significantly less than enthralling, he said.

“I was actually surprised when we got the approval,” Colins told YNOT. “It was a long and at times frustrating process, but in the end we’re glad to have gone through it. We viewed it as a learning experience.”

The most important lesson the team learned: Never do something like that again. Except in rare cases, the rewards probably aren’t worth the effort, Colins noted. Although CutestGirls—which displays lingerie catalogue- or swimsuit competition-level erotica—precipitated a surge in traffic on the more explicit CutestGirls.com website the moment the app appeared in Apple’s online store, Colins said “the store is an exceptionally crowded market” that caters to a consumer with a short attention span.

He hastened to add that Nucato’s statistics indicate iPhone and iPod users buy more and are more interested in adult content than owners of other portable devices, so the market is a viable one despite snags with the Apple App Store. However, Colins said a better bet for most adult content developers is Web-based applications.

“Will the future of mobile development be in downloadable or Web-based apps?” he asked rhetorically. “Right now, it looks like Web-based apps will lead because they aren’t operating system-dependent. The drawback to Web-based apps is that you have to build your own promotional machine. Apps in Apple’s store enjoy promotion to a large audience…as long as you don’t get lost in the crowd.”

CutestGirls is a free app designed primarily to promote the CutestGirls.com mobile website, where explicit nudity is available to those willing to pay a fee for access. Adult app development is a sideline for Nucato, which specializes in mainstream mobile products like its flagship, Seego.com, a mobile directory and search engine optimized for iPhone, Palm Pre and Android. Nucato has done some development work for a few adult industry heavyweights like TopBucks, though.

“We’ve received great user feedback on the [CutestGirls] app so far, and we learned a lot about what the App Store reviewers are looking for and what triggers rejection of adult-related apps,” he said.

“A lot of the source content that CutestGirls was built on is substantially more explicit than what was eventually included in the app, so a big part of the process was closely looking at the images to ensure that they approached the edge of eroticism, but never jumped off the cliff,” Colins added. “As you can imagine, it was an excruciating process for our developers to be forced to look at images of beautiful, half-naked women for hours on end, but somehow they managed to survive intact.”