You can't go five minutes these days without hearing about
iPhone piracy, but sadly it's a big part of the software industry and one that's here to stay if the following statistics have anything to say.
According to Greg Yardley, CEO of Manhattan-based Pinch Media, losses from piracy are a rule and not an exception, and over half of apps have been pirated.
"What we've determined is that over 60 percent of iPhone applications have definitively been pirated based on our checks and the number is probably higher than that," Yardley reveals.
Pinch Media provides analytic software for iPhone developers, which Yardley says is used by 8 per cent of the iPhone App market.
The Pinch Media software allows developers to have a good overview on the performance of their app, with data such as how many are using it.
"What developers lose is not necessarily the sale because I don't believe pirates would have bought the game if they hadn't stolen it. But when there is a back-end infrastructure associated with a game, that is an ongoing incremental cost that becomes a straight loss for the developer," Yardley explains.
"Many developers run servers to provide content dynamically, they run high-score servers, and that sort of thing costs money. If your application is pirated, you quickly find that cutting steeply into your profit margin, especially given the low price point of iPhone games."
Joined:
Dec 2008
Post count:
947
So... 60% of apps are pirated and 8% of the market is eaten up by pirating? Its kinda hard to tell if thats what you mean...
Where are these guys getting their figures from? First its 50-90% of sales are being consumed by pirating and now its 8%...
sheesh...
Well, hopefully Apple will be able to find a solution to the problem. And that solution will not include destroying jailbreaking - Apple needs to find a new avenue of approach.
The pirating circle is a much smaller one and has much less media exposure then the jailbreaking community. Not to mention that setting up the ability to pirate takes a little bit more know how than the average jailbreaker has.
So if Apple targets the pirates instead of the jailbreakers then they will more than likely have more success. Even if it ends up being a cat-mouse game like it is with the jailbreak community.
---As a side note: this is not a new concept - pirating happens across all platforms. I think the CD/DVD burner is the easiest and most readily available method of pirating. No one has moved to outlaw CD/DVD burners to stop pirating, companies have worked on encryption and anti-pirating software to combat piracy.
So why doesn't the App Store take the same approach?
It is impossible to take down a community that is Hell bent on open development period. But it is much more plausible to thwart a pirating community because only a small cross section of the "hacking" community supports pirating.
On top of which all this media coverage about IPHONE PIRATING is making Joe-Blow aware of the issue... so what does he do you might ask. Well he's gonna research IPHONE PIRATING and then set his iPhone to pirate Apps and now you have a new pirate on your hands! Weeeee!
Do you see how this is really stupid? Did we learn nothing from the Napster case? If you give something mainstream media people that would normally not have known about a subject are suddenly exposed to it and are intrigued.
Yes, deal with the subject... but keep it under wraps and fix it behind closed doors. I don't remember hearing anything about XBox pirating over mainstream media until the problem was fixed...
Heck! Even Microsoft can do SOMETHING right.
tim
king | 20 November 2009
hi guys out there ,pircay is the menace of thi sgaming world
it all can be controole donly when evryone of us stop doing activites which are not good.
Encryption at the wirless level using difference wpa standards and stringent laws about pircay with heavy fines could stop pircay and more it apple storehas to set up a anti-piracy cell which works round the clock for preventing this menance.soon or latter pircay will give night mares to developers if it continues the way it is now .
Gone are millions lost in flash based games,pc games,j2me games.
i think now piracy is pitched high on I phoen games.
please for heaven sake dont buy pirated version
from
http://www.veegames.com
