Posted by Jamie Forestell
Toyota’s advertising company Velti decided it would be a great idea to launch a Toyota Scion theme in Cydia.
Apple also heard about the theme and ad campaign. I received a call from our contact at Velti this evening as well as an email asking me to please take the theme out of Cydia. On the phone, he explained Apple had contacted Toyota and requested they remove the theme and stop the advertising campaign. They (Velti) in turn contacted me relaying the message. The reason Velti listed for the removal request of the theme emailed through our dev portal was “Toyota’s making us take it down…” Toyota had agreed to do so to “maintain their good relationship with Apple,” our Velti contact told me on the phone.
Now this would have to be the first time a major corporation has ever chosen Cydia first and modmyi reports they were shocked as well as delighted. In previous cases, such as with the VLC app, Cydia is a last resort for developers to sell their applications once Apple had rejected them from the AppStore.
This is not a surprise that Apple has asked for the application to get pulled. Given that Velti is not new to the advertising game, one would have to wonder if this was really a publicity stunt. As I am writing this article, and as many other media outlets have and will also be writing about this, I would have to agree and commend Velti on a job well done. The only thing missing from this “stunt”, is a spontaneous twitter comment from the Toyota twitter account.
If you are looking for the application in Cydia, Toyota has agreed and has had the them pulled from the store.
Next time use an Android device. Google wont call you.