Over 1.5 million Apple devices using pirated iPhone apps; most pirates located outside U.S.

“Piracy is a minor but still important problem for iPhone app developers, says analytics firm Pinch Media. The company notes that shortly after the launch of the App Store in 2008, it began receiving complaints that Pinch tallies of new users were exceeding official figures displayed by iTunes Connect. The discrepancy is now believed to be attributable to piracy, tracked by Pinch since May of 2009,” iPodNN reports.

“Of the iPhones and iPod touches tracked by Pinch’s systems, some 4 million are currently said to be jailbroken. Jailbreaking is a necessary step before using an unsanctioned app; only 38 percent of hacked devices — roughly 1.5 million — are known to have used a pirated app however, a comparative minority,” iPodNN reports. “Real piracy is believed to be somewhat higher, mainly due to pirate efforts at evading detection.”

iPodNN reports, “Regionally the largest ratio of pirated apps, over 37 percent, is said to be found in China. Almost 25 percent of Russian apps are pirated, and in Brazil the figure is approximately 22 percent. Japan, Great Britain and the US are said to exhibit the smallest piracy rates, no higher than 5 percent and closer to 3 percent in Japan.”

More info, including graphs, in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

50 Comments

  1. Part of the problem doing business in the world outside the west is that no one wants to pay for IP. They consider it should be free. In many ways this applies to almost all things, even the persons around them. I wish more people understood this different “perception” regarding property and the rights associated with it, but almost no one does or will even spend the time to learn. I would equate the beliefs to a feudal or pre-feudal framework whereas “if no one is able to physically defend the property then it must be mine” decision process.

  2. @Frobots

    I can not but lots of things that are sold elsewhere, but usually it is not the faukt of the company selling the item, but is attributable to local regulations preventing the sale of the item. This is why many if not most apps are not available outside the US, the local regulators will not allow it becau$e the proper form$ have not been completed.

  3. “Why is it just because you don’t get caught stealing, people think it’s okay?”

    Ask Charlie Rangel. Oh, wait, he got caught – along with the other tax dodgers in this administration. Crooks, all of them.

  4. I was going to say ‘The bastards can’t afford a buck or two for an App?’ and then I realized the people in the richest country in the world, and Americans too, steal $1 tunes all the time.

    Pirates have only one leg to stand on.

  5. “Why is it just because you don’t get caught stealing, people think it’s okay?” —Hmmm

    Why is it that some people think everything the law defines as “stealing” is the same as robbing a bank? Lighten up! For better or worse, your Victorian morals are out of date, pal. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and that’s a fact. The big dogs at the head of the pack are devouring the lion’s share of everything while the nation starves, and you’re upset because some folks aren’t paying for their software? That’s f***ed up.

  6. “The most corrupt countries have the highest percentage of piracy.” —Spudley

    Then the U.S. must have one of the highest rates of piracy, because it’s hard to imagine a country where government and business are more corrupt than they are right here. At this very moment, families are being put out on the street by banks that received billions in bailouts themseves but won’t lend a helping hand to others. You can’t get much more corrupt than that.

  7. … and alansky comes along to prove my point with a bunch of equivocation and special pleading. I can hear her whining now; “If she wasn’t such a bit$h I wouldna shagged her husband!” or “If that guy wasn’t such an a$$ about these gambling debt’s I wouldn’t have ta steal so much!”

  8. alanski writes, “@ron:

    In your opinion, perhaps, but not in mine. Your self-righteous assumption that your opinion is the “right” opinion is very offensive. Keep it to yourself.

    Please tell me where my opinion is incorrect. Are you a Marxist?

  9. “At this very moment, families are being put out on the street by banks that received billions in bailouts themseves but won’t lend a helping hand to others. You can’t get much more corrupt than that.”

    You are so full of $#!+ you are seeing brown. For the most part those families (the adults making the financial decisions) are just as much to blame as the banks. They bought with their eyes and not their brain. Got themselves in too deep. The whole damned problem was that the f**king banks lent them the money in the first place and now they can’t pay it back and the banks started collapsing. Most of the people who can’t pay there mortgages should have NEVER been given that mortgage in the first f**king place. The problem for people like myself who could have gotten a mortgage for twice as much as I did but didn’t is now I can’t sell my house if I wanted to without loosing money because the market is flooded with foreclosed houses or people getting out of their houses before it is foreclosed.

    OH, and sorry for off topic but that comment got me pissed.
    I’m sure Mr. alansky is still wet behind the ears and knows not WTF he is talking about. Or perhaps one of those adults that dug his own hole and now is pisses because he is being told to sleep in it. Either way….GROW UP

  10. @alansky

    On! No! Whatever shall I do!?! The mighty alansky has attempted an insult! Should I cry? My feelings are hurt! Perhaps I should cry!

    NAH!! I must remember that the mighty alanski is just a psychopath that will do, or say, anything, anything at all, in order to obtain her goal, whatever that goal may be at any given time. The thing I must remember is that the mighty alansky is not capable of discerning right from wrong, incapable of genuine feelings of any type for anyone or anything, incapable of feeling guilt, remorse or empathy for their actions, incapable of identifying with or appreciating the level of physical, emotional or mental pain that they cause their victims. In fact, the mighty alansky is incapable of recognizing that the first few sentences I wrote in this post are sarcasm as opposed to actual distress.

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