tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post3015317382590539891..comments2023-11-23T08:55:01.108-05:00Comments on Victor Costan: iPhone Piracy: Hard Numbers For A Soft ProblemAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15471814314476820630noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post-42678084933777786162009-10-17T04:17:52.643-04:002009-10-17T04:17:52.643-04:00@Anonymous: Thank you for your interest and questi...@Anonymous: Thank you for your interest and questions!<br /><br />First, the complaint in this post doesn't hold as much now. Apple has made In-App Purchases available to free applications. This feature can be used to authenticate purchases, but the coding required to implement it is non-trivial.<br /><br />If I find time to update StockPlay, I'll definitely switch to a trial + purchase / subscription model.<br /><br />Next I will answer your questions. The 24hr mark shows how little time it took people to pirate the application. It proves that apple's DRM is worthless. You can use StockPlay on your iPod Touch if you have a WiFi access point. In fact, I've switched to an iPod Touch as the main method for testing StockPlay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post-75666522232144348042009-10-16T16:26:38.899-04:002009-10-16T16:26:38.899-04:00(From the same Anonymous that just posted above)
D...(From the same Anonymous that just posted above)<br />D'oh! Nevermind, I just read the related post on why you set the price at $9.99.<br /><br />Oh well, c'est la vie - would've liked to try the app but have an iPod Touch, not an iPhone, so no cellular data connection...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post-63612720320555307472009-10-16T16:19:22.955-04:002009-10-16T16:19:22.955-04:00I'm not saying piracy is right, but wouldn'...I'm not saying piracy is right, but wouldn't there be much less incentive to get the pirated version of an app that costs one dollar versus an app that costs ten dollars?<br /><br />All other things being equal, if the piracy rate really is >90% (is the 24hr mark significant b/c your free version has a 24hr limitation?), it shouldn't be too difficult to run a break-even analysis on how much more you'd make from selling the app at a lower price where it's not worth it for people to go to the trouble of cracking it or the trouble of finding and installing the cracked version.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post-64158099557074159082009-08-15T16:27:27.079-04:002009-08-15T16:27:27.079-04:00@Anonymous: thank you for your helpful thoughts!
...@Anonymous: thank you for your helpful thoughts!<br /><br />Regarding the customer list -- developers complained about that, and it still hasn't happened. You can read about the bug I filed here: http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=69401<br /><br />I have a plan that will solve my piracy problem and my pricing problem at the same time. The solution is using In-App Purchases to switch to a subscription model. The subscription payments are signed by Apple, so these are secured. Unfortunately, having a subscription-based app opens up a slew of problems, and I have to figure them out before I can roll out the change.<br /><br />I also explored pirating methods, with an emphasis on Crackulous, and I contributed my findings to George Hotz' wiki for everyone to find. So, right now, I have a pretty good idea of who is pirating StockPlay, and I can use that data when I want to shed some server load. More about that at: http://blog.costan.us/2009/05/community-effort-for-iphone-application.html<br /><br />Regarding Google's App Engine... I wrote an app engine application in Python while working at Google, and it's not as fun as Rails. Personally I'd rather be less profitable and have some fun.<br /><br />I know GAE can support Rails via JRuby, but I read it's not a match made in heaven. I'll wait and see if Rails 3.0's more modular structure makes it a better fit for GAE.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15471814314476820630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4376417828574391409.post-65602453491900833552009-08-15T13:56:18.160-04:002009-08-15T13:56:18.160-04:00Rewrite the app in Google's App Engine and you...Rewrite the app in Google's App Engine and you will save money on the server resources and such. You won't cure piracy, but you will increase your margin on the sales that you do make.<br /><br />Also, I don't know how the App Store really works since I just started looking into iPhone development, but don't you receive a customer list or something when a user purchases your app? You could tie this userbase into your web app to curb down on the pirates as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com