HMV app temporarily pulled from Apple’s store

Less than a week after HMV’s new app was announced, the software has been pulled from Apple’s store.

Posting on Twitter, HMV chairman Paul McGowan said the company was instructed to remove the music download function from the app before a 6pm deadline today, but was unable to do so. Apple subsequently suspended the app from sale.

The move is expected to be temporary, with engineers working on an updated version of the iOS app that will keep the music discovery and preview function, and also allows access to customers’ digital lockers to manage digital downloads through HMV’s HTML5 store.

The Android version of the app is unaffected by the changes.

The HMV app was launched on Thursday in the UK and was expected to hit the Irish app store within two weeks.

It was, according to HMV, the first non-iTunes-based service on Apple’s iOS platform to allow the purchase of digital music downloads through a native app experience, and offered users the chance to preorder digital music releases.

It has recorded more than 10,000 downloads since its launch on October 17th.

“It is disappointing that Apple has chosen to suspend an app that has proven to be very successful in only a few short days despite Apple having already approved the exact same version on September 15th,” Mr McGowan, said in a statement. “ We are unable to explain the change in Apple’s position as we have been given no explanation by them as to any difference they view between the approved version and the one suspended this evening.”

The Android and HTML apps will be available in Ireland this Thursday.