New iPhone App Piracy Statistics Reveal "Try Before You Buy" Mentality is a Myth
Jailbreaking, the act of hacking your iPhone or iPod Touch so that it allows for the installation of unapproved third-party applications, is a popular activity among the tech community. But in addition to allowing you greater control over your mobile device, there's another - ahem - benefit, if you will. Jailbreakers can install free versions of paid applications. These pirated, or "cracked" apps as they're called, are distributed through online repositories for easy download to your device. The whole process is as simple as snagging the latest box office release or popular album from the file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay.
But many jailbreakers claim that they're only pirating apps so they can try them out before purchase - a necessary evil since Apple doesn't offer trial periods for their applications, forcing developers to release "Lite" versions instead. While some do so, many others apps exist only as premium versions. Considering there are now some 85,000 apps to choose from, people want to know if their app purchase is worth the money. Or so they say. However, recent statistics about application piracy prove otherwise.
Piracy a Global Phenomenon
At the recent 360iDev conference, mobile analytics company Pinch Media shared some findings about piracy in the iTunes App Store. They've been tracking jailbroken devices for several months now and have started to get a handle on this previously unexamined ecosystem. According to their data, which includes 4 million jailbroken devices, 38% have at least one pirated application installed. Pinch Media says this estimate is low since pirates often take extra steps to avoid detection. Still, it's worth noting that this percentage is nowhere near being the majority of jailbreaking users. There are more people who just want extra control over their device and not an opportunity to steal apps.
They also discovered that the piracy phenomenon is not limited to any one particular market. Although piracy rates are relatively low in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, where perhaps Apple iPhone users have more money at their disposal to spend on premium applications, piracy is a global problem. However, it does appear to be much more rampant in markets like China, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, where it's negatively correlated with per capita national GDP, notes Pinch Media.
"Try Before you Buy" - Just an Excuse to Steal?
However, the most interesting finding was the one where the "try before you buy" mentality was exposed as being a myth. Despite jailbreakers' claims that the need to "demo" an app is among their top reasons for pirating, Pinch Media found that this simply wasn't the case. To test this, they set a baseline for typical conversion rates of legitimate "lite" to paid applications and found that the conversion rate there is 7.4%. That means about 1 in 14 who try the "lite" version go on to purchase the paid version. However, among the pirate community, pirated-to-legitimate conversions are 0.43%. That's only 1 in about 233 installations. In other words, few users of pirated apps are truly "trying before they buy," they're just trying.
That being said, the pirates aren't necessarily using the pirated apps all that much. Pinch Media found that pirated apps are used less frequently than paid applications and for a shorter amount of time. They theorize that this is due to a few reasons: pirates are less attached to apps considering that they didn't pay for them, pirates often install more applications in bulk and therefore don't have much time to spend with each one and jailbroken iPhones tend to crash, leading to more frequent app uninstalls.
Although these findings may initially disappoint application developers who see piracy as contributing to lost revenue, the argument could be made - as it often is among other content-producing industries - that the people doing the pirating weren't actually going to pay for those apps anyway. They're simply sampling them because they can. While it's still a stretch to say that piracy helps developers, it's hard to really quantify how much it hurts them.
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"Try Before you Buy" - Just an Excuse to Steal?
Nop, because, try does not mean I will buy ^^
It's Try, and if I want, because I like, I buy :)
So may be the real answer to that, it's that majority of pirated apps, are crap apps, that doesn't deserve to be buy...?
Pinch's statistics line up right with what I see happening to Boxcar: 0.056% of pirates convert to the full paid version. This is even after they receive a warning message and their account is disabled.
I've had countless ones email me after receiving the warning, claiming to only be trying it.
Interestingly enough, after putting Boxcar on sale for .99c (down from $2.99), the rate of piracy stayed the same but the number of pirates who converted increased slightly.
You'd be amazed at the kind of people who pirate applications. I've had personal discussions with Microsoft MVPs that install pirated software. How much more hypocritical can you get?
The problem I see here is that people who jailbreak their phones are not nearly representative of iPhone owners in general. They are a small subset of people who go out of their way to circumvent Apple's control of their device. The average consumer is not going to do this, if they even know the "option" exists. Despite what they may say about their reasons for installing pirated apps, I suspect many jailbreakers wouldn't purchase the apps regardless of whether there was a "try before you buy" capability or not. The only way we'll ever know if "try before you buy" will work for the App Store is to actually try it with normal everyday consumers. Any other sample just doesn't generalize.
When it comes to piracy, there is no question that iPhone apps are pirated A LOT less than movies, music, and windows applications.
To complain about iPhone app piracy seems almost rude to companies such as Adobe who have to deal with 1/5 Photoshop installs that are pirated.
iPhone apps are relatively cheap, in most cases you need the full working app so go buy it, even though you'll find a better app for the same purpose later today...
Oh these guys from pinch media should really shut up.
Here's a little tip: there are countries that you can not buy apps because iTunes does not take your credit card.
You can register without a credit card but can not buy apps.
So what do you do when you really want a paid app? you steal.
Not because you want to and not in order "to try"
only because you do not have another option.
You can buy a gift card but apple also knows that trading gift cards on the net usually brings you to ppl you don't wanna mess around with.
App sellers must understand that a "pirated" app does not equate to a lost sale.
I have a jailbroken iPhone because the iPhone is not yet sold in the country where I live. I also "pirated" 5 different weight loss tracking apps to see which one was the best for me. When I found the one I wanted, I deleted all but that one and then bought it (I have U.S. iTunes account which lets me do that).
Point is: just because an app is pirated doesn't mean it's actually being used. I really did "try before I buy" and then I bought. Instead of having to invest $20 in apps I didn't want, I bought the one I loved for $3. Seems fair enough to me...
I have to say that the try before you buy mentality is a smart one and I wish Apple and app developers would adopt something to allow users to go down that path.
With so many apps out there claiming to be the best thing under the sun it's difficult to make an educated decision based solely on end-user recommendations
Good points #6, #11.
Firstly — will be nice to have the opportunity to legitimately buy.
Secondly — will be nice to have the opportunity for money back.
Thirdly — being used to music which is available (albeit pirated) whenever and wherever a person want, why he or she should submit to Apple and AppStore's choice and taste of applications and looks? I'm talking about 62% who installed jail broken firmware and haven't pirated a single app.
I do own an iPhone and it is not jailbroken. I would've tried more applications if the "try and buy" was more largely available.