Apple has made an absolute fortune from its iPhone range and downloads from the App Store, but it's also lost a small fortune to piracy.
Figures from financial site 24/7 Wall St suggest app piracy has cost the platform holder and iPhone developers over $450 million since July 2008.
Over three billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store to date but it's estimated that for every legitimate, paid download, three illegal app downloads have been made.
A number of game developers, including Rally Master Pro creator Fishlabs and Tap Fu studio Smells Like Donkey have been stung by iPhone piracy, leading them to question whether Apple's doing enough to combat the problem.
So the small percentage of jailbroken iPhone user are responsable for 9 billion pirated apps? That seems very unlikely. As far as I know the only way to get pirated apps is through jailbreaking. Correct me if I'm wrong.....
I had my original iphone 3g Jailbroken, not for apps, because at the time there was nothing special, but the fact it had everything that the 3g should of had. But it was seriously easy to jailbreak it (jailbreak is the software used to hack the phone for custom things). It took me 10 mins on google to find out what to do and start. But now i'm happy with my 3gS and the apple store, I like to pay devs that work hard on such good apps. on my 11th page of apps, over 2/3rds paid for too
About a year ago my friend had an app that finds pirated versions of apps and downloads them for free.
Want all your apps for free, theres an app that.
On a serious note though. It's not like the apps are really expensive. Mostly only a couple of pounds each. Some poeple can be really stingy.
£60 for TomTom, is very steep for an app, though. Considering you can get TomToms for about £100 and in this instance it's only the software you need, no expensive GPS equipment or touchscreen, that's a pretty rotten price.
£60 for TomTom, is very steep for an app, though. Considering you can get TomToms for about £100 and in this instance it's only the software you need, no expensive GPS equipment or touchscreen, that's a pretty rotten price.
Actually the hardware is fairly cheap these days. What you are really paying for are the development and testing costs (i.e. software).
Sadly the mentality these days is that its fine to pirate and if you want something and you don't want to pay for it, just take it. At work I'm one of the only people you pays for my music & DvD's and games, the rest of the office all download it and copy it off each other and none of them pay for it. And they all look at me like i'm mad for not doing so. in fact they take the p!ss out of me for buying my music and thinking piracy is wrong. Not only do they not pay the artists/makers etc, for the products there is all the V.A.T they skip out on as well.
I had my original iphone 3g Jailbroken, not for apps, because at the time there was nothing special, but the fact it had everything that the 3g should of had. But it was seriously easy to jailbreak it (jailbreak is the software used to hack the phone for custom things). It took me 10 mins on google to find out what to do and start. But now i'm happy with my 3gS and the apple store, I like to pay devs that work hard on such good apps. on my 11th page of apps, over 2/3rds paid for too
I've got a jailbroken 3gs it took less then two mins to do it with a program called blackra1n. I did it not to have cracked apps but so i can have winterboard an app Apple should have allowed from the start as it lets you change the text alerts and themes of the iphone which most phones can do except the bloody iphone thanks to Apple. I can't see the point in downloading pirated apps as most cost less then a fiver.
I had my original iphone 3g Jailbroken, not for apps, because at the time there was nothing special, but the fact it had everything that the 3g should of had. But it was seriously easy to jailbreak it (jailbreak is the software used to hack the phone for custom things). It took me 10 mins on google to find out what to do and start. But now i'm happy with my 3gS and the apple store, I like to pay devs that work hard on such good apps. on my 11th page of apps, over 2/3rds paid for too
I've got a jailbroken 3gs it took less then two mins to do it with a program called blackra1n. I did it not to have cracked apps but so i can have winterboard an app Apple should have allowed from the start as it lets you change the text alerts and themes of the iphone which most phones can do except the bloody iphone thanks to Apple. I can't see the point in downloading pirated apps as most cost less then a fiver.
Considering .. do you still need itunes for back-ups and sync your music ? as i HATE itunes !
A pirated app (or indeed any software) DOES NOT EQUAL a lost sale.
So this 'piracy cost iPhone apps $450 million' is at best completely inaccurate and at worst lazy journalism that only exacerbates the furore about pirating of software. One would expect better of a site writing in the industry. Not this one apparently.
People really p**s me off. Apart from the GPS apps (they usually cost around the £60 mark) most apps are cheaper than a tin of juice and give you hours of enjoyment. Take the Beneath A Steel Sky remake for example. It's a game I already own and have played to death, but the new art panels and the sheer portability made it a must-purchase and as a bonus they've changed the ending so that they can now produce a sequel. The fact that people refuse to pay even £2.99 for such a well made game makes me sick. It's because of those c**ts that people like me have to suffer DRM, stupid piracy ads and those stupid legal panels written in languages that film don't even support .
£60 for TomTom, is very steep for an app, though. Considering you can get TomToms for about £100 and in this instance it's only the software you need, no expensive GPS equipment or touchscreen, that's a pretty rotten price.
.....and especially considering that the TomTom version on iphone is a watered down mess and isn't actually very good.
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