Cost of App Store Piracy Pegged at $450 Million

[Ninja Dom]

THis is just amazing to me.

The Apps are tied to your iTunes user account, so it makes no sense to me how they do it.

Furthermore, these Apps are cheap, I buy one whenever I want, and it doesn't hurt my wallet.

It's far easier and more rampant than you actually realize.

As has been said before, you need a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch. There's an illegal App store available to those units. Pirated versions of apps appear within a couple of days of the real version going on sale in the official App store.

Almost everything is available including the expensive Sat Nav programs.

 

[Speedy2]

Your problem, you fix it. Make better albums, charge people less, let people just buy singles without the filler, let people hear what they're getting before they have to shell out the $ for a whole album.

That's not how it works and you are making the matter waaaay too easy. There's always a certain part of the population that will always take something when it's free instead of paying for it, especially when it's very easy to get the stuff for free (music downloads). iPhone app piracy is the best example. These people are willing to shell out $1500 or something over the course of 2 years for the device and are cheeky enough to pirate $5 apps.

There is no justification for piracy. If you (and I don't mean you personally) think it's not worth it, don't buy it. Simple as that. If you do pirate it, you're just a hypocrite. Or you can just be honest and say "yes it's bad and I know it". But coming up with excuses is just lame.

I agree that "stealing" is a bad analogy for software piracy.

 

[fishkorp]

Cost? I would love to see an itemized detail of this cost. Show me where it has cost anyone anything.

Not making money, is not the same as being cost it.

Get your language right.


And no, I don't pirate apps.

Push apps or apps that rely on a server "cost" the developer money. I rely on monthly sales to help pay my server costs. If everyone pirated my app instead of buying it, I would be losing money because I have monthly server fees doing all the data checking and pushing that I would need to pay out of my pocket. Pirated apps do indeed "cost" developers money.

 

[rKunda]

Who cares, how many of the people who pirated software would have really bought it? What about the people who pirate it before they buy it to know if it's any good?

Yeah, because I'm so sure /most/ people willing to go through the process of pirating apps does so with such noble intentions. I even doubt that most people that claim this are lying, and that's a small portion of people that have no qualms about stealing apps at all.

 

[kirky29]

To be honest, I don't believe these numbers.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I won't lash out at anyone, I just don't get how stealing became so generally accepted over such a short amount of time.

Stealing or any of the other things people do wrong in society.

I am sure everyone's justification for it will be, "As long as I am not hurting anyone, it's okay!"

Is this what the googlephone fans mean by "open" and get so mad at Apple for? You mean, it's not about AT&T and iTunes, and it's just about their desire to pirate apps? Most of which are free?

I know you are just kidding, but WAY WRONG.

 

[/dev/toaster]

With this article being published, the problem is only going to get far worse. Most people don't know how to pirate iPhone apps and that is a good thing. I have had friends question if its possible and I just refuse to answer.

*IF* I was going to jailbreak my phone again it would be for that awesome home status screen with the widgets or maybe to enable tethering but that it is about it. Not going to pirate applications.

 

[HaXoR7Om]

Yes and those that cost hundreds of dollars are priced that way because they serve a niche. If a member of the niche pirates a copy and uses the app frequently, that lost sale costs the developer a lot more than the piracy of 99 cent apps.

Yes, And I'm not endorsing piracy

 

[aristotle]

How can you detect a pirated app vs paid for app?

Using the API, you can check to see if the application is encrypted or not. Pirated apps are unencrypted while apps from the appstore are encrypted and signed to an iTunes store account.

 

[VenusianSky]

Cost? I would love to see an itemized detail of this cost. Show me where it has cost anyone anything.

Not making money, is not the same as being cost it.

Get your language right.


And no, I don't pirate apps.

I was thinking the same thing. How did it cost Apple? Did that many people pirate Texas Hold'em? Are they losing money that was invested to bring up the App Store? Doubtful considering the beaucoup bucks they make from music sales.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I agree that "stealing" is a bad analogy for software piracy.

No, it's the perfect analogy. Software piracy IS stealing.

Someone worked hard to develop a piece of code that serves a market. Instead of paying for it and supporting the person(s) you get a copy for free illegally.

In the end, your taking money from the devos.

 

[DTphonehome]

Using the API, you can check to see if the application is encrypted or not. Pirated apps are unencrypted while apps from the appstore are encrypted and signed to an iTunes store account.

If that's the case, why can't devs block service to pirated apps?

 

[daveak]

I wonder how many of those are legitimate redownloads of deleted software due to memory constraints....

Memory constraints? Out of disk space on their computer? If you delete from your device to make room for more apps/music/video then you always have the copy still on your computer from syncing with itunes.

 

[lannister80]

Sounds like they subscribe to the "RIAA School of Accounting", aka making up giant dollar figures they're "owed".

 

[macfan881]

Have you ever taken 5th Grade English or Grammar? What about 4th Grade Spelling?

Please show us what you've learned if you have passed such courses.

How about you stop being a A$$ and get back on topic. There is that grammar better.

 

[Speedy2]

It wont help. Jailbrake allows people to use 3G instead wifi for many applications and thats the main reason. The second reason is changing the carrier but here in UK its not the case any longer and it won't be in US soon enough.

The simlock is - in my opinion - the very main reason. For example, nearly all iPhones in Russia and China are unlocked phones, and they were unlocked first of all because you couldn't / can't buy the phone there. It's similar in countries with a single iPhone carrier and other GSM carriers (i.e., unlike the US where the major alternative carriers run on CDMA)

Also many people unlock their phone because they want to put in a different sim card when they are going abroad on a holiday. Major issue in Europe. You cross a border using your phone, your phone bill will skyrocket.

 

[paradox00]

No, it's the perfect analogy. Software piracy IS stealing.

Someone worked hard to develop a piece of code that serves a market. Instead of paying for it and supporting the person(s) you get a copy for free illegally.

In the end, your taking money from the devos.

It isn't perfect for reasons people already stated. Theft results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit (if you take it off the store shelf no one else can buy it, and it was very likely that someone would have). Piracy only results in a potential loss of profit (would the pirate have bought it?).

Piracy is its own can of worms and should be treated as such.

 

[ktappe]

Unlikely

I know about 20 people with iPhones. Not a single one has any pirated apps. I refuse to believe that this article is accurate--iPhone app piracy simply is not that prevalent.

 

[daveak]

As many apps that are worth the money to a customer, they have sold. Any that are not, they haven't.

We went through this in the music industry a decade ago. If your cd isn't worth paying for to a customer, you are not going to get the sale. You're not selling him that cd, because it's not worth the money to him. Whether

This train of thought only works if you have a perfect market, everyone fully informed of what is on offer. One big problem with the App Store is visibility. If you aren't visible, you don't sell. This is why many less scrupulous developers pushed pointless updates, just to get on the new releases pages. If there are no or low sales for an app doesn't necessarily mean it isn't worth the $0.99 it might be selling for, or the $10 it might be selling for.

App developers, you're gonna continue to not make revenue if you offer stupid apps, and apps that cannot be tried or tested before they're purchased. Fix it.

It seems it is the stupid apps that do actually make money, boobs, farts, soundboards, heatpads etc. etc.

As for try before you buy, why? Do you sample food in any restaurant you eat in before you sit down and order? Do all the apps on your computer have demo versions available? Most apps are at a price point where you just need to make a simple decision, Does this look good? Is it something I would like? Then you take the gamble. Caveat Emptor.

 

[shawnce]

If that's the case, why can't devs block service to pirated apps?

If the application is running on a jail broken phone and/or has itself been modified when pirated then any ability to reliability call any API to make such a decision can be worked around by the pirate. Developers could make a best effort at trying to detect this, assuming the application contacts servers of their own, and only then likely block access to their server. Again even something like that could be worked around.

 

[AAPLaday]

Apple was quick enough to stop Palm Pre syncing with itunes. They should do more to stop this.

 

[Gauthic]

Memory constraints? Out of disk space on their computer? If you delete from your device to make room for more apps/music/video then you always have the copy still on your computer from syncing with itunes.

Actually I know quite a few iPhone users who don't even touch their computer and use the App Store and iTunes on their Phone exclusively....not every iPhone user is a full-time computer user. These people use their iPhone effectively AS their computer (at least their PERSONAL computer).

TBH I rarely sync my Phone with my computer....maybe once every other month or so.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

A 50" TV isn't worth $900 to me, so I can just go take one? That's how it works?

I'm on my way to Best Buy right now! Thanks for the tips guys!

Copying data is not the same as stealing materials.

 

[Buschmaster]

It isn't perfect for reasons people already stated. Theft results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit (if you take it off the store shelf no one else can buy it, and it was very likely that someone would have). Piracy only results in a potential loss of profit (would the pirate have bought it?).

Piracy is its own can of worms and should be treated as such.

Someone stealing an app instead of buying it isn't lost profit?

Developers are paid just like everyone else, they cost money. Servers cost money. Websites cost money. The dev program costs money. Dev books cost money. The test devices cost money.

It's stealing.

 

[daveak]

If that's the case, why can't devs block service to pirated apps?

If the app is properly cracked then the piracy check is just bypassed.

If you have a server component to your app you can potentially block access, but it would seem to be purely speculation on the app being pirated (if the piracy check was bypassed in the app code)