

A conversation with an iPhone pirate - signa11
http://jrtb.com/blog/?p=451

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patio11
Short version is "I pirated it to gain status with people who think a buck is
too much damn money to spend on software which runs on a six hundred dollar
phone "

~~~
huhtenberg
No, that's not what the guy said _at all_.

He cracks the apps (which he first buys) because he perceives existing Apple
Store buy-then-try model unfair, and that's a damn good point. It's not about
the price. It's about a rampant false advertisement and Apple's unwillingness
to deal with it.

Apple has a clear conflict of interests. They should switch to try-then-buy
model, but that will affect their revenues as the $1 cr@p will simply stop
selling. They should also deal with poor quality apps better, but again that
will affect their revenues. If something sells now, there's no reason for them
to change a thing _if_ it will make the same thing sell less.

~~~
enra
Actually I think it would good for everyone if there would be somekind of
trial model.

I heard a speak from some Xbox manager once and he talked a lot about trial
versions of games. I think(not sure) MS requires every game that is sold in
Live Marketspace to have some kind of trial. He made a point that trials and
especially great trials can mean a lot for game's success. Great trial isn't
just a crippled version or the first level of the game but a game itself,
using almost all the mechanics.

Of course the scale is different, but I think the general point is that trials
actually help in the long-tail if your game is any good.

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acangiano
The pirate's argument is bullshit. Trial software for Mac OS X and Windows is
cracked all the time.

~~~
jcl
I agree, and we'll be able to see this directly once the Android App Market
starts charging money: the Google market agreement has a provision to allow
the customer to get a refund within 48 hours if they don't like the app.

Will we see less piracy of Android apps? Of course not... The pirates will
merely find another excuse, or they'll claim that 48 hours isn't enough
evaluation time.

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gcv
Fascinating piracy ratio in the article. Approximately 4:1. I assume most
cracked apps require jailbroken iPhones. I think it unlikely that the piracy
ratio of the author's application reflects the overall ratio of jailbroken
iPhones. This suggests that the people pirating apps make up a fairly small
percentage of the iPhone owning population. So the script kiddie who cracked
the author's app is probably right, and most of the people who used the
pirated version would not have bought it in the first place.

Or so I hope. :)

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sh1mmer
While I don't condone the piracy, the first of only two games I've spent money
on at the AppStore was Lux DLX ($7.99). That was because I'd spent 3 months
becoming hopelessly addicted to the free version.

While taking away your freedom of choice as a developer is lame, I still agree
with some of his arguments. Not that it gives him the right to put his
argument first by force.

------
signa11
honestly, i am not very sure if this really _is_ HN material. however, i am
very pleasantly surprised at the smooth communication from the developer, and
the subsequent ease in getting info out. far, far better than the typical
vitriolic outburst that is very common...

~~~
pistoriusp
I think it's relevant. There are plenty of people here who develop for the
iPhone and it's interesting to know that the cracked application community is
so large... And that it's so easy to crack them. (From what I read in the
article).

