Prudery or prudence? Apple's app store rejects Esquire's sexy cover

One of the (alarming?) drawbacks of magazines selling their electronic versions through Apple's app store is that Apple calls the shots and editors and publishers are left to play the game "Guess what we're thinking?" And, yes, it almost always seems to be about sex.
That seems to be the case with the November issue of Esquire, which features a cover image of Minka Kelly, described as the "sexiest woman alive". Yet, according to a story on Mashable, four weeks after the magazine was on the newsstand, the iPad version has yet to appear on the Apple store site.

The problem? The issue is simply too risque for the App Store, one source familiar with the matter told Mashable.. The publication has submitted a revised version it expects to be approved in the next few days, around the time the December issue is slated to hit the App Store.

An executive at Hearst said that Apple has not, in fact, communicated at all to Esquire since the issue was submitted to the App Store, despite multiple entreaties — nor that the publication has submitted a revised version.

In a New York Times interview with Apple's head of worldwide product marketing, Phillip W. Schiller, he said that Apple has purged "an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content" that drew customer (mostly female) complaints, although mostly not from well-established, bigger titles such as Playboy or Sports Illustrated.