I’m sure Jen and Joe Hernandez are wonderful real estate agents. I’m not certain that I want to see another 150,000 real estate agents, Amway salesmen, Pizza shops, convenience stores and Life Coaches join them in the Apple iPhone App Store with programs that do nothing little more than present an opportunity to use the App Store to advertise their web site and allow a user to call or email them.

Do we really need an App that does little more than email a business or direct a user to the company web site?

If this is an approved application can a few hundred thousand “call me” copycats be far behind? This could make the “pull my finger smell my fart” Apps look “mission critical” in comparison.

Apple please tell us that these types of applications won’t litter the App Store!

The software that facilitates the creation of these is MobileAppLoader.

The first application advertised on their web site is the Real Estate – Real Easy.

Which from what I can read does – well, nothing.

I take that back. It does provide a link to call the real estate agent, browse their web site or send an email with the customer’s address (apparently gathered from the GPS). It also includes a loan calculator application. The features included in the application seem to do nothing other than facilitate getting the company who produces the application some free App Store advertising space.

All things that take a few seconds to do via phone – and don’t seem to be made any easier by using this App.

If we go back to Real Estate Agents Jen and Joe Hernandez – here’s all that their application does:

Since this is a free application there’s nothing to worry about, right?

Perhaps.

But how long will it be before aggressive salespeople start using the iPhone App Store as their personal search engine. If this type of application is allowed to grow unchecked it could very well open a new era in snake oil salesmen SEO (search engine optimization) consultants pushing useless no cost applications into the App Store strictly for their advertising value.

Apple should be reviewing their acceptance guidelines to be sure applications in the store have some value beyond simply promotion.

If an application is purely advertising – create a separate class for these (if they don’t outright refuse them). Allow users to bypass the advertising applications as an iTunes preference.

If this is not done soon we’ll have an App Store littered with useless programs that do nothing except dial numbers and point users to web sites. Can Spam Apps be far behind?

This is one case where I think Apple is making a mistake in accepting these types of programs that do little more than run an advertisement for the creator.