What piracy is costing one iPhone developer
A first-time coder’s experience with the dark side of selling software via Apple’s category-defining iTunes App Store was both better and worse than expected.
Miguel Sanchez-Grice has written a detailed blog posting (via TUAW) on his experiences with and conclusions about piracy of his popular tank battle game iCombat (iTunes). Even though he’s experiencing a piracy rate north of 60 percent (there are different ways to parse the data below), Sanchez-Grice is neither angry nor bitter, and advocates a practical approach to the issue in his conclusions about the problem:
This is one way to not get paid (6,537 x $1.99 ) $13,008.631) Piracy is still not that big of a problem when talking about the apps with larger download volumes
2) Blocking pirates is not worth it unless you can push conversion by giving them a lite style version
— Strategically structure the cracked game so pirates get the upsell3) Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face
— The competition is so fierce to get noticed in the App store that any attention is good attention.See also:
— One in five App Store titles available on pirate sites …
— iCab Mobile 1.0: Great, easy to access features and, yes, porn mode too…
— InstallerApp: Put whatever apps you want on your iPhone
Going forward, Sanchez-Grice has decided he will release a “lite” version to tempt pirates away from the torrents and help preserve the value of iCombat, which is an increasingly common strategy. This approach, which can be viewed as at least a partial surrender to hackers and pirates, seeks to balance the need to put food on the table and allow users, both paying and otherwise, their dignity.
Between a rock and a…
If you were an iPhone developer, what approach would you choose: 1.) remotely cripple all pirated copies, 2.) pester pirates with nagging pop ups, or 3.) follow iCombat model and seek a middle path?
Whatever your position there doesn’t seem to be one single correct answer…
What’s your take?
