Pirates outnumber buyers 3-1 on iPhone apps

May 11, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments |
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It’s easy to sermonize that Hollywood fatcats should learn to live with the fact that 95% of online media are bootlegs, according to a Digital Hollywood panel last week, and focus on monetizing the remaining 5% of non-copyright-infringing copies. But what about standalone iPhone app developers? Should they turn the other cheek to pirates, too?

Ow My Balls is a real iPhone app. Developer Josh Michaels emailed with a shocking stat: For every copy he sells, three copies are downloaded from pirate app sites such as Appulo.us. “It was up there within about 12 hours of it going live in the App Store,” Michaels said.

Another developer, James Bossert, blogged the same ratio: 196 buyers, 615 stealers. He emailed one of the pirates and got this reply:

i only want to give public the change to try out your game before spending their money. I at first did not crack any games but after i purchased a few games which were not as good as the description let me believe i wanted to help others not to waste their money on something which even has no return policy.

Would a trial period for apps cut down on bootlegging or, more importantly, raise app sales? Apple continually declines to comment on the matter, but it seems worth a small trial program.

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Trial periods don't really help in other types of games, so probably wouldn't help here either. In almost all cases, pirates steal because they can get something for free. Any rationale beyond that is transparent justification. It's free and whether they have a right to have it for free or not is beside the point to them. They feel entitled to the software/music/movie's existence simply by the fact that the software/music/movie exists and they want it.
  • ericflo
    This is just sad...the app is $.99. I understand why someone might feel justified pirating a $3,000 piece of software, but nobody who owns an iPhone can say that they can't afford a 99 cent app.

    It would really be interesting, though, to see how many people convert and actually purchase an item after having tried it out illegally.
  • 419onscene
    I don't like the carriers deciding what I can or cannot have on my phone, would I like Apple's rather capricious stewardship? Anyone's that had a smartphone, and put applications on it knows that 6 in 10 mobile applications just don't work the way you want them to. It just seems that 615 people didn't think Ow!My Balls was worth a dollar to speculate on for entertainment value. I rarely buy PC Applications without trying them out, and I certainly would never buy a mobile app without trying it out. I actually paid $100 for two blackberry apps from REXWireless because they were well supported and well executed applications. I never would have shelled out that money for apps that "might" be good.
  • CH
    As a developer who's spent years trying to make ANYTHING from the app-store, it is my opinion that everyone affiliated with Appulous should be shot.
  • Keith
    I hope Apple finds a way to prevent this sort of abuse, this is rediculous
  • I would think that a trial (1-3 days) would help to convert people to buy an app. After all, we have gotten so used to the return policies of offline stores where we oftentimes do buy more than we would if couldn't return an item.

    Maybe the trial should mirror the offline world so that you do pay upfront but have, say 3 days to try an app. If you don't like it you send a cancel code that you got when you purchased the app, and get a credit.

    This would certainly make a difference for me as I also don't like to buy things I don't know and can't try out or return.
  • Trials are pointless for most apps considering that many of them are only fun for a use or two
  • justinchina
    yeah, historically, on mobile at least, the conversion rate from free trials to paid subscription is ludicrous. you are better off trying your luck with the pirates...
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