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Developers bemoan rampant and costly Android app piracy; iPhone developers unaffected

Monday, August 2, 2010 · 3:48 pm · 26 Comments

“Google recently announced new measures to help developers fight piracy of Android applications,” Jay Yarow reports for The Business Insider.

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“It’s a good thing, because David Peroutka, director at Android game developer Hexage, says piracy of his apps is through the roof,” Yarow reports. “In Asia, 97% of the game’s users are playing an illegal copy [of Hexant's game "Radiant"]. In North America, the piracy rate is 43%. In Europe its 70%.”

Yarow reports, “While [Hexant's figures] suggest sales could be 3X as big without piracy, Peroutka says ‘Many people using illegal copies would not buy the apps if they have to pay for them,’ but he thinks Google’s piracy protection should help increase sales.

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26 Comments

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GriffinFX

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 3:55 pm · Reply

As an iPhone/iPad developer I’m happy with Apple’s “Walled Garden”. The FreeTards never seem to understand that developers getting money for their work is a good thing.
- HexRage
  
  Monday, February 27, 2012 - 3:58 am · Reply
  
  @GriffinFX
  
  You can cram it up your arse. What is hilarious to me, is that they bring up David Peroutka in this article. This guy in particular is known to be a complete scammer, and author of pay-to-win games like ‘Robotek’. If anyone deserves to have their games pirated, it is jerks like Peroutka. We need fewer people like him, not more. “Devs” like this guy are far worse than any app pirates,
DUH!

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 3:59 pm · Reply

To little too late. Google doesn’t want to prevent piracy of Android apps they want developer to give them away free. Google after all is all about Free. Any measure Google takes to stop piracy will be a Token at best and more likely a Joke that will harm developers that charge for their Android Apps.
ken1w

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:02 pm · Reply

Huge market of potential customers (users willing to pay not steal), the iTunes App Store for distribution, minimal fragmentation (low number of hardware configurations to support and test against), and built-in deterrence against both malware and software piracy. Apple will continue to attract developers faster than Android.
HughB

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:09 pm · Reply

@DUH
I agree. I would guess Google particularly does not mind piracy of the games with ads. Just more eyeballs for Google. That is where their money is after all.
And I don’t believe that Android is selling 160,000 phones per day—where are the lines, that is almost 2 per second in 24 hour day. I checked with local Verizon store and a clerk told me they sell about 15 a day. So if that is right then there would need to be 10,000 similar stores selling them. Does that sound right? How many are in US?
Deus Ex Technica

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:26 pm · Reply

Over the years some “folk wisdom” has arisen in the computer technology sphere which holds that:

Open = Good
Closed = Bad

While that “wisdom” can be correctly proven for a great many things, it is by no means universally true. Meanwhile a corollary arose:

PC/Windows = Open
Apple/Mac = Closed

This too, at one time could be proven much more easily than it can now, at least with regard to Macintosh and OS X.

The point is, while these beliefs are still deeply held, they no longer bear themselves out as solidly in current facts. Apple, despite their past, now vigorously embraces many open standards, and in fact has been instrumental in embracing and championing some despite the market’s initial resistance.

Having said that, Apple clearly wishes to stay in control of many products and services they offer. The iPhone SDK and the curated App Store a just two of many. Critics often use these as examples of how “closed” (bad) this is, but it’s really hard to argue with the success of these products and services for all three stakeholders: Consumers, Developers, and Apple shareholders.

This article illustrates one example of how a “walled garden” approach, despite it being “closed”, is actually “better” for all involved.
Deus Ex Technica

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:28 pm · Reply

Forgot to add:

Let’s modify the “wisdom” to make it universally true today…

Open <> Closed

and the corollary:

Apple <> Everyone else.
MooseKnuckles

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:34 pm · Reply

@Deus Ex Technica

Couldn’t agree more with you. Took the words right out of my mouth, but you said it better than I could’ve.
iLuvMyMacs

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:35 pm · Reply

and- with an Android phone you can “pirate” virus and spyware too.

Image- a whole new anti-virus industry for Sophos, Symantec, Trend, etc. exciting day$ ahead. Stay tuned… Droid fools.
Michael Linehan

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:41 pm · Reply

@GriffinFX
“The FreeTards never seem to understand that developers getting money for their work is a good thing.”

Well said. I wonder how many of them go to work every day and don’t want a paycheque. What’s that you say? None? Hmmm.
Mulder

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:43 pm · Reply

I was talking to a family of 5 (mostly all adult age) and they all have Droids. I asked how many apps they bought. Answer – Zero. Zilch. Nada. Zip. None. For all 5 people, not a single app purchase! Loaded with cheap freebies, not a single high quality app in the pack. This is the Android market – developers beware.

PS – BTW the Droid and Droid-X are pieces of sluggish, clunky plastic junk. It’s insulting to compare these to iP4.
TimD

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:56 pm · Reply

Apple app store = Switzerland
Android app store = Somalia

Where would you rather be?
Kevin

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 4:59 pm · Reply

With the rise of Linux/Android more and more people have come to believe software should be free. Google pushes it’s AdMob, ad supported software is one thing. I prefer to pay for an App free of Ads.
breeze

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 5:33 pm · Reply

Hahahahahaha- to all the bitching whining useless developers that even hsf the balls to complain about Apple’s lucrative and best seal anywhere invtheir lifetime:

Eat shit and literally die.

You’ll never get a better deal anywhere. Now, other than considering yourselves special because you can write an app (NOT, because anyone with half a brain can) write a good one that peilr sctually grade by buying….
Mike

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 6:02 pm · Reply

Everyone knows googleware has more security holes than a screen door. But theft goes both ways. No, i’m not defending piracy, i’m talking about my personal time. When i buy an app, i expect it to work quickly and efficiently, not to waste my time with ads or monitor my every move. That’s stealing my time and personal data. Lost in the conversation is the impact of ad-supported crapware and privacy holes. Neither Android nor Apple are going in the right direction there.

Everyone knows that cheapskates will consume any crap that’s free. So regardless of platform, developers are constantly tempted to offer cheapware packed with ads. Remember, when cable TV was launched, it was sold as an alternative to ad-laden broadcast television. Now everyone accepts 25 minutes of ads for every hour of programming, plus blatant product placements within the program itself. And then they wonder why no one watches TV anymore. Of course, content is key, but ads turn people off. 70% of America watched the last episode of MASH, but today getting to double-digit penetration would be an amazing feat.

Nevertheless, the same strategy is being pursued by the mobile industry. We would expect this from the likes of Google, but it is rather disgusting to see how Apple has sold its soul and is ramming iAds down the throats of its users so its developers can make a few more bucks. Once upon a time, Apple openly stated its goal was to offer the best user experience, profit share was irrelevant. Has this changed?!?!?

To Apple: I want the iAd-free plan.
To the few remaining developers with integrity: Proudly launch a quality application and tell how your app is different than the free/cheap crapware. price your application fairly, allow the user to opt-out geolocation and other privacy-reducing “features”, and you will earn repeat business. Be the BMW of the industry, not the Trabant.

You know, there are alternatives to both iOS and Android.
boyweho

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 6:34 pm · Reply

I haven’t seen the Android Market, but from all the talk of how “open” it is, I visualize it’s like a swap meet, where anyone can set up shop and sell anything, and the burden is on the buyer to decide on the trustworthiness of the product and manufacturer; whereas maybe the Apple iTunes App Store is more like a major grocery store where a few products are store-branded but otherwise tons of choices in toothpaste, laundry soap, etc., and the burden is on the store to keep the shady riffraff out. Any other good analogies out there?
montex

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 7:19 pm · Reply

So how’s that “free open source” app market workin’ out for ya?
Derek Currie

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 9:28 pm · Reply

“Apple doesn’t suffer from the piracy problems in the same way. To get a pirated game on the iPhone, a user has to jailbreak the phone.”

Proving yet again that Apple did it right,
and Google did it wrong.

I strongly suspect that with the tidal wave of criticism regarding Android apps, Google will gradually get-the-clue and do it Apple’s way. Just watch…
mike

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 9:40 pm · Reply

its so obvious that the people who want cheap crappy PC’s are the same ones who want to steal apps on the android market… who didn’t see this coming?

Android had something like 2% of app sales revenue? telling..
Monitor

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 10:52 pm · Reply

An Android wallpaper app that was downloaded by millions collected people’s personal information and sent it to China.

Apple’s iPhone posts record monthly usage share gain; growth over twice that of Android
Monday, August 02, 2010 – 10:15 AM EDT
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/apples_iphone_posts_record_monthly_usage_share_gain/
Fedup

Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 3:31 am · Reply

Learned long ago that Google is more of a cancer than a search engine. All they want is to spread as fast as they can in all directions. Quality and privacy are of no concern to them. All of the companies and developers who are embracing Android as Google’s great open source gift had better wake up and realize that they are a tool carefully selected to spread one thing, Google.