Alliance of the jailbreakers: Cydia acquires Rock
It's official: the two largest jailbreak app stores for the iOS platform, Cydia and Rock, are getting together.
ModMyi is reporting that Jay Freeman (AKA Saurik) and Mario Ciabarra (AKA psuskeels) have been working through an acquisition of Rock Your Phone, Inc. by SaurikIT, LLC for several months now. That deal became official last night, and over the next 10 days there will be a transition from Rock to Cydia where users can continue to purchase and download apps from the Rock app. After that time, users will need a Cydia store login to continue buying apps. Many of the themes and apps on Rock are already found on Cydia; the remainder will be transferred to Cydia as soon as possible.
According to the post, Ciabarra will continue producing the Intelliborn line of jailbreak apps, which includes such big titles as MyWi, Tlert, MyProfiles, My3G, and Intelliscreen. At a recent "geek lunch" in Denver that Erica Sadun and I attended, Ciabarra noted that Rock Your Phone has been quite successful, with total revenues from startup in March of 2009 accumulating to over US$3 million in August of 2010. Ciabarra's comments in the post indicate that he prefers doing app development to enhancing platform functionality, so the acquisition will let him get back to doing what he does best and loves the most.
Although the two stores have both had their supporters and detractors, the merging of Cydia and Rock should be a win for the two companies and for the jailbreak community as well.
