I think the point is that there's no way to stop pirates (0% piracy of apps
will never happen in this universe)- it's all about finding a balance
between user frustration and developer protection.
100% developer protection = forcing users to submit to total background
checks showing up at their house before having them buy an app
0% developer protection = $0
Obviously we need to find a balance, but it's unclear where that
equilibrium point is right now.
Someone should do a study on that.
On Saturday, February 9, 2013 10:44:42 AM UTC-8, Kristopher Micinski wrote:
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
in...@anton-kaiser.dejavascript:
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.
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