Apple to offer domestic downloads within China

In a bid to prevent further attacks on its App Store, Apple will offer domestic downloads of its software for developing apps, within China.

Phil Schiller, Marketing Chief, Apple, confirmed to Chinese news site Sina.com that the company would make it easier for Chinese app developers to download its tools for building mobile apps.

Schiller’s confirmation follows the first-ever major malware attack on an Apple app store. It must be noted that unknown hackers infected legitimate programs by persuading app developers to download a tainted copy of the toolkit.

Schiller also said that Apple plans to list 25 tainted apps that the company has identified so that customers can delete and update them.

Meanwhile, Chinese app developers told Reuters they resorted to downloading the tainted software kit for developers from unofficial, third-party sources because of slow speeds downloading from Apple's official servers located overseas.

Many complained the US tech giant should do more to support developers in the company's second-biggest market, the developers told Reuters.

Researchers said infected apps included Tencent Holdings’ popular mobile chat app WeChat, car-hailing app Didi Kuaidi and a music app from Internet portal NetEase.