"don't have a paid version of your app in the market" is a non solution: ad supported apps don't make real money for the mid range developers (with the top 1-2% of app developers perhaps being able make a modest profit).
I know of at least one study to show users actually end up "paying" a good amount for apps if you factor in other costs: battery life, data connectivity, the possible cost of your private information being sold, etc... This is not to say ads are bad, but it's unrealistic to think that you're actually going to make a real profit from a solely ad supported app. Generally you will make a free version with ads, and an upgraded "pro" version with more features. What happens when someone cracks this version and puts it on the market? For the real developer (someone who cares about their profits, and isn't just making an app for run, collecting a little bit of ad revenue for giggles) app cracking is a concern. Educating yourself on the different ways it can be done would be good knowledge to have. (FYI, there are automated tools today that crack apps doing all sorts of crazy things like disassembling and rewriting your bytecode to remove licensing checks, etc...) kris On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 11:38 AM, Anton Kaiser <[email protected]> wrote: > Just for the fun of it, I've read all the answers here. And Rob H. is the > one deserving my +1 ;) > Still, the idea of your solution is good, but it is even easier to pirate > your app. This is because the in-app purchase system is flawed an has > already been broken. It is enough for any user to have a well-known app > installed (not going to tell you it's name here though), which emulates the > Google Play Store. When a user touches to purchase more levels, he will pay > $0.00 in the emulated store, and the store will report back success in your > app, which will start downloading from your server. > Now to counter this, your server will have to check with Google Play if > there really has been a purchase from that user before you provide the > downloadable content. This is one extra step, but really an essential one. > If your app gets really successful, somebody will write an emulator of your > server, and again it was all for nothing. > > So, basic point taken here for anybody who reads this: Don't waste your time > on copy-protection. Have a free, ad-supported version in the store so user's > won't have to start looking for pirated versions. And be happy if people > start pirating and distributing your app, as this will get your app even > more popular. > And don't sue the pirates. Microsoft did that with Windows XP. Made many > poor people pay a lot of money and resulted in bad PR for MS, so they > stopped that. MS is successful because so many people want to use their > stuff, not because they are so successful in conquering pirates. > > Am Donnerstag, 7. Februar 2013 18:55:42 UTC+1 schrieb Rob H: >> >> I think if you're interested in protecting your app from piracy the best >> way to do it is via the in-app purchase system. If you're making a game, >> put it up there with level 1 for free. Thousands of people will check it >> out. If they want to continue on to the other levels, well here's an in-app >> store where you can decide how much you want to pay for the app (the more >> you pay the more content you get). Then you make your content DOWNLOADED >> from your server, not from unlocking something in your existing APK file. >> This combined with a system that communicates with your server similar to >> the iOS receipt auditing system means that a user is only going to get the >> downloaded content if they go through the purchase process. Yes, pirates >> could buy everything on one device, then bundle all that content up and >> modify your APK to say that all the content is unlocked, however the work >> involved makes this highly impractical. They're only going to do it if your >> game is so popular that everyone wants it badly, and in that case you'll be >> making enough money where piracy almost becomes a positive thing for you >> because it helps get the game in people's hands and at this point your game >> is so good more people seeing it means more people buying it. > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Android Developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. 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