Piracy is inevitable we all know this, so saying that this is a surprise is just wrong. What I am surprised about is the lack of protection given from Apple. It seems Apple is big on the ‘cat and mouse’ game with jailbreaking. . .so you would think they would be countering this with the iPhone/iTunes updates. Instead, Cracked iPhone Application ‘packs’ are popping up everywhere.
From The Pirate Bay to YouTube, Rapidshare to Google. . .and of course the newsgroups. There are more and more ways to download pirated iPhone Applications and more websites to learn how to do it.
Who is responsible for going after the 1+ million websites that come up in Google’s Index and host these cracked applications(or tutorials telling you how to get them working on your iPhone). Will developers have to ‘hold their own’ and have to personally go after their own applications? If so, then Apple is basically asking every developer to be the ‘piracy police’ for the entire App Store. With Apple pulling in so much revenue from the App Store I really doubt they will put it in their hands.
So I ask, what is Apple doing(or going to do)? I hope they aren’t too busy with Psystar. Then again, it did take Apple longer than expected to actually respond to the wohle Psystar issue. he App Store has over 3000 applications already and the longer they take to respond. . .the worse the issue will become.
Right now I think people believe that these cracked apps are petty and that Apple is making enough money($1 Million per day in the first month). But we all know that will make Apple pursue the pirates even more because of this.
At the very least I think it will be interesting to see how this unfolds(just like the first major iPhone virus).
I’ve downloaded and played some of these. As a unlimited emo. If i liked them I bought them. If I didn’t I deleted.
As of 2.1, none of them will run on my jailbroken 3G. Maybe apple solved it?
hei
I’m not going to lie, when I had a 1st gen iPod Touch I jailbroke it to use the 3rd party apps like smart shuffle, converter, tap tap revolution and others. Once I updated to 2.0 I regretted it and even reformatted my computer’s hard drive to get iTunes 7.5 so I could run 1.1.4 on my iPod Touch (yeah, that was stupid). Once I finally decided that 2.0 and the app store were worth it, and I had the possibility to jailbreak it again I updated and then jailbroke my iPod Touch again. I don’t know why, but I had a ton of issues with the custom firmware and had to constantly restore my iPod Touch. During this time I downloaded these ‘app packs’ to HAVE the apps and not have to pay for them. But ever since I was able to get a 2nd Gen iPod Touch and jailbreaking won’t work, I have bought A LOT of apps from the app store. Many of the apps are well worth the money, or free, and I have recommended then to friends and rated them here. While the temptation of having free apps, and lets be honest here most people do this for free games, is still there, I think I’ll just use the app store. I have a job, I can pay, so why not support the developers of these stellar programs?
As an iPhone apps developer this really makes my blood boil. I have a very small team of around 6 developers – all of whom have families to feed and rent to pay. We are not some nameless faceless multinational but a real company with real people and piracy hurts. The pirates may as well have broken into my house to steal my TV but it is probably not worth it as it is not a plasma – I can’t afford one as people keep stealing my software.
Who are these people who are cracking the apps – are they doing it for fun, to cause chaos, why???? They are not making money off it and they had to purchase the apps in the first place. Do they have no morals at all? I hope that one day sombody comes in and steals something that they have worked hard to create of produce so they know how bad it feels.
I have been tracking all of these sites and have been writing to as many of them as I can asking them politely to remove the links but this is really just trying to stick my fingers in a dam.
I am hoping a solution can be found as it does take away the incentive for creating good apps – why bother if they just get stolen? Then everybody loses.
I like my IPOD touch and the App store has done wonders for the hardware and platform.. but let’s get real, a lot of these little apps from the Apple appstore are simple software solutions which aren’t worth a dime.
These Apple developers should take a look at the quarterly Google Android competitions and get a feeling for what it takes to call software an APPLICATION. An application is more than a simple interface which can do 1 or 2 things. What Apple calls applications are really just 1st-grade widgets, nothing more.
The only real apps worth their salt on the Iphone/IPOD are the medical apps and a few other software development efforts. Just telling it like it is.
2 cents, F.
I had my 1st gen iPhone unlocked and jailbroken mostly because it was possible to add functionality to the device, and experiement with the new multi-touch interface. Once v2.0 came out with the app store, I no longer needed to use Cydia or Installer to get applications, as most of them were out, or coming out soon, on the official app store. Besides, you could tell that some of the better apps on Installer (Labyrinth, Kate) started charging for the use, so if they’re going to charge, why not pay officially on app store anyway? Lastly, I’m happy that most of my official downloads are free or really low priced. I appreciate that some developers offer a “lite” version to whet the tastebuds, and that strategy has been successful in convincing me to pay for the full app (Poker Dice, Expando, Hanoi Plus,) while some I saw online videos to see what its like (Koi Pond, Star Wars Force Unleashed, Spore, Enigmo, SuperMonkeyBall). I’m happy to pay for software that works and brings me joy. Like another poster said, we’re earning money, and afew bucks wont break the bank, and the developers deserve it. No developers, no software. Its as simple as that.
Apple is not able to follow his f……g review for AppStore, and in some months (weeks) app store will contain more than 100′000 apps… Would you be able to find (or would you be patient enough…) THE application you’re looking for ??? I’m sure NO. Using Ipod Touch since beginning of this year, I would have to PAY at least 30$ more than the 400$ already paid (at an xxxapple.com website) for the Ipod Touch for the 8 firmware update… (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, “1.5″, 2.0, 2.01, 2.02, 2.1, what’s next…) and still missing features that you’ll find on any others PDA !
Okay, maybe I’m wrong with Ipod Touch, after all it’s an ipod, so Music and that’s it…
The only REAL way I’ve found since january is JAIL…. (you know what I mean or you’ll find it with any web browser)
By the way, I have changed firmware on my ipod touch so many times that I don’t remember how much, but App Store is still Buggy and ssssooooollllllloooonnnnggg to start, that I did’nt use it anymore !
And Honestly, I’ll pay for Applications I’m really using, but directly to the Author and not to give money for a really bad store, to a company that don’t care about customer…
Did Apple really heard programmer’s about the fu…ng NDA ? NO Did Apple really listen to programmers complaining about time to be reviewed and hazardous rules for placing a Application in AppStore ? NO
But Actually, they are thinking about Price increase in iTunes Store…
Thank you Apple, Forget your customer, and make Money… That’s what YOU need.
It’s not like someone breaking in to your home stealing your TV set. It’s more like someone breaking in to your home to burn copies of your CD’s. But without the breaking in part.
Noone is stealing your app from you, since you still got your app don’t you? They are making their own copy without paying. It could probably be called stealing never the less, but it is nothing like stealing hardware. Cause if you steal hardware from someone that person aint got their hardware left – thats not the case wih software.
Going after piracy is completely pointless. Why? Because it doesn’t change a bit. I’d say you should stop complaining, because it doesn’t help.
Meaning that people will always find another workaround.
i used to be an appstore customer, until i bought this app that did nothing it said in the description. i forked over 20.00 bucks for an app that stunk! Now i use that software to try out the application and then buy it legally. In the future Apple, please leave a refund button please.
I bought one application, paid 9.95, the damn application stopped worked after a month, when i email the idiots, they say I got to pay again for the upgraded version. Now what. Do you expect me to go and pay that idiot again?
Perdon por contradecir un poco a algunos de los que se expresan aqui. pero contrario a lo que dicen de que Apple no ha contemplado su pirateria. por supuesto que la tiene contemplada, la competencia en reproductories de .mp3 asi como de telefonos celulares es muy compleja. si no fuera por la variedad de aplicaciones que se pueden jailbreak en estos dispositivos, Apple dejaria de vender cantidades impresionantes, en mi caso que vivo en Mexico, estamos juntos al pais mas fuerte de la industria del iphone. que es Estados Unidos. y no es posible que un proveedor de telefonia tenga la concesion absoluta del iphone, a una cantidad de mas de 1150 euros. lo que obliga a uno a ir al pais vecino a comprarlo por una tercera parte. Apple tiene contemplado esto, al final de cuentas lo que la empresa de Jobbs quiere es vender. mas bien, le digo a los desarroladores que implementen un sistema de bloqueo que active la aplicacion al momento de usarla o instalarla en el dispositivo.
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