Apple's image took another hit today as Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent iPhone developer, said that he found a line of code inside iPhone's operating system that the Cupertino-based company could use to remotely kill applications that run on the device. This announcement comes as Apple's decision to withdraw some of the applications from the App Store raised quite a few controversies.

The company hasn't issued any statement regarding the 'kill switch' that possibly exists in the software that runs on the iPhone. As a result, some people already started making assumptions regarding the way Apple might use it.

One thing that the 'kill switch' might do is allow the company to disable any malware that might have slipped unnoticed on to the App Store. But there are some other darker scenarios surrounding the discovery. Some experts are already wondering whether Apple has inserted some other lines of code that might affect the privacy of the people using the device.

The only thing that remains certain at this moment is that nobody actually knows what this is all about. As the man that discovered the 'kill switch' said, cited by PC World, “For all we know, it could trigger world war 3, or it could cause some computer somewhere to spit out recipes for buttermilk pancakes.”

What this latest rumor confirms is that Apple is going through a bad period. The company is racing from scandal to scandal and it looks like there is only a question of time until people will change their perception about it.