People pirate Android apps because it’s easy. It’s easy because the platform was built with an open mentality.
He makes some great points, but I also think this misses the real problem.
People have been able “side load” apps on their computers forever. But with the creation of the App Store something changed. Developers no longer had to worry about dealing with credit cards or licenses. Apple took care of that. It’s become clear that some of Apple’s restrictive policies on apps weren’t just about experience for customers. They were about maintaining the ecosystem
Without Apple’s lockdown on apps, piracy on iOS would be just as easy. Download installous and you’re good to go. It was the only way of making Apple’s model as the distribution center a viable model.
Back to Android. Side loading has been his downfall not because it’s inherently a bad model, but because in the mobile world devs have no longer seen the need to deal with licensing and fighting piracy.
If you look at the quality apps for Android, they’re all apps built by companies who make money off web services, not the apps themselves. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc etc. the scary thing about this problem is there is really no going back. There’s no un-opening Android
So some of the very patterns that have made devs love the App Store, have made developing in the Android world (and making money from it) virtually impossible..
