iPhone: How jailbreaking can hurt Apple Store developers
May 12th, 2008 Posted in iPhone
Apple will be releasing the final version of the iPhone SDK soon. Along with it registered developers will be able to sell their applications via the Apple Store. Developers will be able to set their own pricing for their creations and Apple will take 30%. Thousands of developers have already jumped on the band wagon and are working feverishly to get their applications developed as quickly as possible.
The problem I see with this is the jailbreaking community. These apps don’t have any of the restrictions of “official” iPhone apps. They can access the full file system of the iPhone, they can access the low level hardware directly, etc.
My concern is that the jailbreak hacking community will very quickly “crack” the Apple Store installed SDK applications and make it easy for jailbreakers to copy and run these applications for free. This could seriously cut into the profits of anyone trying to sell iPhone applications via the Apple Store.
What can Apple do to combat iPhone application piracy?
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Jailbreaking was just a little tease. The software update that includes the app store will most likely also remove any chance of jailbreaking.
Jailbreaking is not going to be a problem. Apps will be signed and will therefore be locked uniquely to a device. People will be able to jailbreak phones all they want but without the proper signature apps will not work.
Piracy is not going to be solved by the iphone appstore or anyone else. Developers have to deal with it as a fact of life.
I don’t think it will be too much of a problem. The new firmware WILL be jailbroken, but the numbers of jailbroken phones will probably fall, simply because there will be a legitimate way to install apps on the phone.
Perhaps people making expensive software might have to worry some, but I’m hoping to sell my apps for a couple of dollars, perhaps making a jailbroken version free. People aren’t going to go to much trouble to crack guitar tuner software when they can just get it legit for a dollar.
[...] Super Monkey Ball for iPhone has been hacked July 25th, 2008 Posted in General macnn is reporting that the first iPhone app from the AppStore has been hacked. That didn’t take long. I predicted it back in this article. [...]
> My concern is that the jailbreak hacking community will [...]
The best thing that Apple can do to reduce the number of developers migrating to the jailbreak scene is to start giving out developers licenses.
I’ve been developing OpenGL iPhone apps for eBay/PayPal (currently available on the Apple Store) since before the 3G launch - yet I’m unable to get a license. Since developers like me have no way to fully test our apps before our clients deploy to the Apple Store, we’re being driven by Apple to the jailbreak community.
I’ve been developing 2D/3D imaging software since 1973, and have a half-dozen OpenGL and video effects apps that I’d love to sell on the Store - but Apple doesn’t seem to be interested in having developers like me supporting the iPhone community.
It’s not surprising that developers who have been shut out of the process are finding other ways to compete.
I seem to remember hearing about devs who haven’t been accepted applying a second time and getting in quickly. Or you can release apps on someone else’s “label”, as iTunes Connect calls it.