“The iPhone’s App Store is becoming an increasingly juicy target for pirates, who have illegally cracked 20 percent of paid applications for free distribution,” Brian X. Chen reports for Wired.
“Apple’s App Store offers about 25,000 paid apps, and iPhone analytics company Medialets estimates at least 5,000 have been pirated. The company also said it has tracked dozens of apps with as high as a 100-to-1 pirated-to-paid ratio,” Chen reports.
“‘It’s a real problem that developers, Apple and the community need to address,’ said Eric Litman, CEO of Medialets, a market research company that tracks app statistics and usage for developers,” Chen reports.
“Just how much piracy affects App Store sales is unclear and remains up for debate — since Apple, tight-lipped as usual, has not disclosed any numbers. Apple didn’t respond to several requests for comment,” Chen reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is what happens when you make something Windows-compatible. Windows sufferers, as Microsoft themselves tell us via their advertising, want things as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, with free being their ultimate goal. Stealing doesn’t seem to deter them, either.
Mac users, on the other hand, are discriminating users who have chosen Macintosh over substandard Windows PCs and grasp the amazing value equation that Macs offer.
Mac OS users have made a conscious technology choice and are therefore typically better informed than their peers. – Paul Thurrott, December 06, 2004
Mac users have proven that they will pay for software and buy more than the Windows sufferers. Are we calling Windows sufferers “cheap?” Yes. It’s one of the few things on which we agree with Microsoft.
