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Report: Piracy has cost Apple, iPhone devs $450 million
Update: Reader Phillip wrote in to tell us some outlets are concerned with the figures 24/7 Wall St. has presented. While we never claim these figures are 100 percent accurate (we attribute everything to their report, after all), we felt it necessary to point out some other takes on the info. Both Tech Dirt and Ars Technica are calling into question the figures, while our own TUAW suggests these figures are merely assumptions and could very well be "wide of the mark." Original post: Score several million for the scurvy dogs. According to a piece over at 24/7 Wall St., the Apple App Store has lost over $450 million in profits to piracy since opening its virtual doors in July 2008. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconagh estimates that the App store has had three billion items downloaded by users since its inception, with only 13 to 21 percent (510 million) of those downloads being paid Apps. It's a story we hear far too often. Developers are regaling us with tales of how much piracy hurts their profits and pirates are laughing maniacally at how easy it is to hock illegal wares, living in some dark, damp cave where no light or goodness can be found -- well, save for the light from their pirated iPhone game, anyway. This is done through "jailbreaking," an increasingly common practice of unlocking one's phone through black magic and evil incantations that allow non-App Store programs and items to be installed. Basically, it's God Mode for your iPhone. So how can developers overcome this? Well, some are designing games that requires the phone contact a source to verify the version being played is legit -- an interesting concept that could help pave the way for better anti-piracy solutions. Either way you slice it, you have to be a real [negative adjective] to pirate a game that only costs you a few cents. [Via Pocket Gamer]
Developer claims 80 percent piracy rate for latest iPhone release
Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch is a lot like Sony's PSP in many ways: they both play games, movies and music -- and now both can struggle with the effects of piracy. According to iPhone developer Smells Like Donkey, about 80 percent of all downloads of Tap-Fu were illegally downloaded.The developer notes that learning how to pirate games off the iPhone is surprisingly easy, thanks to "a kernel patch that bypasses Apple's DRM system" that "would take an average person 5 minutes in Google to find." Additionally, the developer discovered that an average of zero percent of pirates end up purchasing a legitimate copy of Tap-Fu -- it seems marking the game down to $1.99 didn't discourage anyone from taking a free ride."It is kind of depressing," the developer admits. However, other iPhone developers are encouraged to take a proactive approach in lieu of Apple's slow response to the piracy situation. "Detecting a pirated app is quite simple to do," the developer notes. "Probably the first thing we'll try is popping up a message reminding people that they really should buy the game if they like it and conveniently provide links to do so." An alternate plan to generate revenue? DLC. "This forces the pirates to change their strategy significantly and it might be a while before it becomes feasible to attack this system."[Via Develop]
