Developers Looking To Set Up App Store Alternatives On The iPhone

from the competition-is-good dept

Mon, Mar 9th 2009 11:29am — Mike Masnick

We all know about the somewhat "benevolent dictatorship" position that Apple holds concerning its iPhone App Store -- at times arbitrarily banning apps from the store. This has (reasonably) upset some, who feel that it's not particularly fair that Apple gets to decide what works and what doesn't -- and now a few are even looking to set up alternative app stores, though they'll only work on jailbroken iPhones. The article speculates on whether or not Apple will send its lawyers after these upstarts, noting Apple's decision to file a protest against an attempt to have the Library of Congress make clear that jailbreaking an iPhone does not violate the DMCA. However, if Apple is smart, it makes sense for them not to do so. After all, they make more money from each phone sold -- and increasing the value of the phones by allowing more apps to run on it should only help sell more of the devices.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: app store, competition, iphone, walled gardens
Companies: apple

25 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2009 @ 11:34am

"benevolent dictatorship" ?. Actually it's just a dictatorship, please pay more attention.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
jguil, 9 Mar 2009 @ 11:43am

jail broken
the more phones jail broken with voided warranties the better for apple. They will just continue to release updates that will brick the phone resulting in more iphone sales
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- bmay, 10 Mar 2009 @ 12:04pm
  
  Re: jail broken
  I have an original iPhone and it's been in jailbrake/unlocked mode since the day I got it. Never once bricked, stil lworks to this day. Get some facts first before posting.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Osno, 9 Mar 2009 @ 11:55am

Isn't going against this guy a case for a monopoly case? I mean, they're banning any way you can buy an iPhone app except for them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Skeptical Cynic (profile), 9 Mar 2009 @ 11:56am

Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
Apple has not yet realized that a walled garden does not make the flowers worth more.

They will.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- jguil, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:05pm
  
  Re: Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
  ""walled garden does not make the flowers worth more""
  
  no, but it keeps the bugs and pests off your flowers and out of your garden!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:12pm
    
    Re: Re: Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
    no, bugs and pests fly over the wall, dig underneath the wall, or burrow their way through the wall. Some of the bigger ones might break down the wall.
    
    (Thank you Pink Floyd for the mental images I had while writing this comment)
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - jguil, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:32pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
      id say apples "wall" is well guarded, no bugs, or pests so far. hope they keep it that way
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:50pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
        ...... so well guarded that honeybees are prevented from pollinating. Those pretty flowers are going to wilt and die without producing any fruits.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Skeptical Cynic (profile), 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:44pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Walled gardens only reduce the value of the garden.
      Yes but you will never ever get anything truly new. So innovation will never will come to your garden. Innovation comes from those people willing to try something that most people would think crazy. So those bugs and pests could create the next great Orchid.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gerk, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:23pm

Apple will likely have to protect to some amount
Or they will get themselves in hot water. That "protection" may be as simple as sending notices to the new stores telling them that they have to post warnings that jailbreaking is not condoned and it will void your warranty .. it may also mean that Apple's lawyers may decide they have to aggressively target stopping these stores. Time will tell. Cydia is selling apps as of today.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dave, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:26pm

Jailbreak?
Technically you should be able to make an app store that works for even non-jailbroken iPhones. You can download apps through iTunes on your PC, then transfer them to your iPhone, right?

So that would mean that all of the information required to get an iPhone set up with an application is being passed across that little Apple sync cable. Set something up to monitor that, them write your own X-Tunes application to mimic it.

Not saying it's easy! Odds are info across the wire is mashed up and pretty hard to decipher, but it's technically doable.

The only backdoor would be Apple's ability to yank an app remotely if it is considered "dangerous".

You can also already do "ad-hoc" distribution of apps, but it requires you to send off some key information about your iphone to a third party that you may or may not really trust.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
steve, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:50pm

cydia?
how would a third party app store be different than cydia or installer? the only difference that i can think of is the payment process. currently, you download something from cydia, and then you have to pay through paypal and get a software key to ulock the app (or similar payment options), but the basic principle of getting an app that didn't come from the app store isn't anything new . . . am i missing something here?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- steve, 9 Mar 2009 @ 12:53pm
  
  Re: cydia?
  should have looked at the link first, but i'm still confused. cydia is a repository that you have on your iphone, and one of the new stores is the cydia store, which i'm guessing will have the same content, just provided online. in light of this . . . i still don't see how this is a big deal. no new apps will be available, and you still have to have a jailbroken iphone.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - T, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:46pm
    
    Re: Re: cydia?
    Cydia will allow developers to create apps that would never get approved by Apple. There are already paid apps on Cydia, but the payment process is similar to other phones - you pay the developer straight.
    
    The Cydia Store follows the App Store model.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
jguil, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:14pm

"". so well guarded that honeybees are prevented from pollinating. ""

enough with the garden reference .. fact is people feel safe buying from apple, apple will not let apps with a virus or spyware on its store. no one knows anything about cydia except for the fact that you have to jailbreak your phone and void the phone warranty to use it, which already sounds shady.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:23pm
  
  Re:
  How is using the product you bought in the manner you so choose shady? All jailbreaking does is "unlock" the phone, which is whats done on all of the other phones that are out there, so that you aren't under the dictator's control over the product you bought and belongs to you. OMG! you said jailbreak! it must be BAaAd.... get a clue
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - T, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:37pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Jailbreaking is NOT unlocking. They are two different things.
    
    Jailbreak - opens the OS for modification. I'm not sure what other phones have this.
    Unlock - opens the baseband so that it can attach to any network.
    
    Current iPhone 3Gs cannot be truly unlocked (there is a software one, but it doesn't alter the baseband).
    
    Maybe you need a clue?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - More Anonymous and the AC above, 10 Mar 2009 @ 9:29am
    
    Re: Re:
    And all using a lockpick on someone's front door do is unlock their door too. Not that I condone the practice, but it's you that needs to "get a clue".
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Chronno S. Trigger, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:24pm
  
  Re:
  They're not targeting the average iPhone user. They're targeting the user who will jailbreak their phone and are probably smart enough to be careful about what they download.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2009 @ 2:23pm
  
  Re:
  "fact is people feel safe buying from apple"
  
  Yes. So what? This tactic by apple is immoral. If I own the phone I should be able to do anything with it. Remember the antitrust tactics of MS. This is worse.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Joel Coehoorn, 9 Mar 2009 @ 1:50pm

swamped
As I understand, the current problem (and the main impetus for creating "competing" stores) is that Apple finds itself unable to keep up with all the applications. That's not an entirely bad problem to have.

At the same time, look at Google's Android. While it is supposedly much more 'open', they're still building a kill-switch into the official distribution channel, because not doing so could leave the devices too open to mal-ware. The point is that some level of control isn't necessarily a bad thing, even if Apple is more than a little heavy-handed in the application.

That said, an official "unofficial" store (if that makes any sense) would probably be a good thing. Apple promises users a certain level of quality for anything makes it to the official store. Developers get increased exposure. Users get access to more apps (if they're careful). Apple gets more money taking a cut from the sales of all those apps and the additional phones they'll say when they make the platform more valuable.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The infamous Joe, 9 Mar 2009 @ 4:33pm

Virus free, and worse.
My major fault with the appstore is that apple's API restricts developers in what they can do. That little Flashlight app you bought for $0.99? Yup, the API limits screen brightness, the jailbroken one is much brighter. Want pictures shown next to your contacts list? Not with their API. Want to change your background or icons? Ha! You wish.

Now, I haven't even got into their willy-nilly restrictions to competing apps. I don't even understand that, because I don't remember ever paying for mobile safari explicitly. So what if an app competes with software bundled with the phone.

Speaking of that, now that Cydia can allow apple delevopers to charge through itself, any banned apps should be easily ported to the cydia store and installed much the same way that cracked apps are now.

Finally, the apple warrenty is crappy at best, and I fail to see how changing the software of a device can/should void my right to get a broken button fixed. That notwithstanding, as the apps in the Cydia store get more and more useful (quickreply/landscape SMS is something apple should have thought of) then more and more people will jailbreak their phones, it's really quite easy, a few button presses and a 5 minute wait an you're done!

Don't even get me started on the crippled excuse of Bluetooth on the iPhone. No file transfer or *music* streaming? Really? No music streaming?

Rant over. :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
slideme (profile), 19 Jul 2009 @ 2:57pm

Alternative App Store Market for Android is indeed portable for iPhone
At SlideME.org we have developed the complete infrastructure for mobile content provisioning of any type for any device.

We support all types of payments including local alternative payments methods with global reach.

We have currently till now focused on Android and preparing for WindowsMobile.

If anyone is interested in contributing to an iPhone client, we are interested in listening.

George
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PHK Corporation, 24 Sep 2009 @ 9:39am

Monopoly and Racketeering ???
Is Apple in violation of Rico racketeering laws?

Is Apple behaving similar as Microsoft did with the IE-browser issue, that Apple does with the AppStore and restrictions on development of AppStore applications?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]