LOS ANGELES — Playboy has unveiled its new iPhone app sans nudity.
Because of Apple’s strict no-nudity content policy, Playboy’s app includes tame versions of the brand’s signature pictorials along with “good life” editorial content including travel, food, drink, cars, gear and style.
Users can download the app for free, but to access the most recent content they have to subscribe Three subscription tiers are offered: $2 for 30-day access to unlimited content and downloads, $11 for six months' access, and $20 for a full year's access. Existing print and web subscribers get the pone content for free.
Although the app doesn’t contain nudity, it is still provocative according to Playboy’s director of digital content, Josh Schollmeyer. "It forces us to use our imagination to be a little bit more creative. I tell all my photographers every picture has to be one of three things. It has to be romantic, whimsical or sexy."
Debut content includes a “Playmate Redux” feature with 2001 Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick and a “God Given Gorgeous” pictorial spotlighting the work of Victoria’s Secret photographer Michael Bernard.
Playboy’s effort to be more social media-conscious also includes the winner of its “Miss Social” contest and a soon to be added celebrity photo essay called “Me In My Place.”
Schollmeyer said the Playmates give the app a star quality, “Me In My Place” give it a celebrity quality, there's an art quality to “God Given Gorgeous,” and a girl-next-door quality to “Miss Social."
Brainier pieces include 20 questions with cable TV “Girls” creator/actress Lena Dunham, an interview with music industry mogul Clive Davis, an opinion piece and a short story. "We still want to give a taste of what appears in the magazine," Schollmeyer told USA Today. "We try to make it very medium-friendly. If you go in and look at the Clive Davis interview, we have purposefully made it as easy on the eyes as possible to read 5,000 words on this small of a device."
Playboy’s digital honcho said the company is looking to deliver a distinctive Playboy take on topics whether it's food, drink, politics or models, "and this is how it is manifesting itself on the phone."
Plans call for the app to also be available on Android devices and tablets. "What you are seeing on the iPhone is really going to be a pilot program for what we do on the tablet, hopefully within the next year or so," Schollmeyer said.
The new iPhone app is restricted to users 17 years of age and is compatible with iPhones 3GS and later, third-generation iPod touches and up, and iPads. It requires iOS version 5.1 or later.