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Comment Same bs stats, diff software (Score -1, Flamebait) 202

The takedown @ Mashable is spot on!

Jokes about fart machine apps aside, are these devs really "losing" money everytime their apps are downloaded and not paid for? Or are they just not seeing the dollar they would otherwise have rec'd? Its the same bs we see with all piracy stories except for the fact that we're talking about a single publisher instead of a wider sw industry.

What I'd -really- like to know is what percentage of all phones and touches do jailbroken phones actually represent? Of those, how many are actually pirating apps? AND! Of those pirated apps, how many actually survive on ppl's devices for more then a day or three? I think those questions would make for a -much- more compelling App Store piracy story then this mental fart of a statistical analysis.

Games

Pirates as a Marketplace 214

John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, made some revealing comments in an interview with Kotaku about how the company's attitudes are shifting with regard to software piracy. Quoting: "Some of the people buying this DLC are not people who bought the game in a new shrink-wrapped box. That could be seen as a dark cloud, a mass of gamers who play a game without contributing a penny to EA. But around that cloud Riccitiello identified a silver lining: 'There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second sale market and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace,' he said, pointing to DLC as a way to do it. The EA boss would prefer people bought their games, of course. 'I don't think anybody should pirate anything,' he said. 'I believe in the artistry of the people who build [the games industry.] I profoundly believe that. And when you steal from us, you steal from them. Having said that, there's a lot of people who do.' So encourage those pirates to pay for something, he figures. Riccitiello explained that EA's download services aren't perfect at distinguishing between used copies of games and pirated copies. As a result, he suggested, EA sells DLC to both communities of gamers. And that's how a pirate can turn into a paying customer."

Comment Article is right for the wrong reasons (Score 4, Insightful) 193

Anyone remember when Apple jacked their licensing fees for port access late last year and pissed off manufacturers? Just in case you dont: http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/10/11/made.for.ip od.licensing/

I haven't read anything that spoke towards manufacturers backing out b/c the licensing hike tho but I suppose economic theory implies some products getting squeezed out.

Is apple trying to squeeze out the market by marketing first-party schwag and jacking its fees?

I think a more compelling argument might be that they're just trying to squeeze every dime out of the ipod as corporately possible before the ipod loses its buzz. Between that and the fact that the silly boom box is yawn inducing (as opposed to being the killer accessory for the killer app) I'm not sold on apple's upcoming knick-knack dominance.

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