14 DAY TRIAL // A CNet report reveals that iPhone developer James Bossert was pleasantly surprised to see that his Whack 'em All iPhone game had 400 new users on a given day. His joy rapidly turned into grief when he realized that only 12 handset owners had actually paid the $0.99 price for the app.
In other words, only 12 individuals had legally purchased his game through Apple's dedicated venue, the iTunes App Store. Bossert was able to track down the person who had cracked the app, making it available for free to jailbroken users. After exchanging a few quite friendly emails, Bossert posted the conversation on his blog. Some excerpts are available below.
"As many iPhone and iPod touch owners have discovered, Apple's iTunes App Store has many flaws, which render it useless to the common user," the pirate, whose alias is "most_uniQue," wrote. "Apple has chosen to allow a multitude of ridiculous, worthless, poorly-represented applications through its 'strict' screening process, nearly all written by mediocre programmers with a dream of getting rich quick. Many of these programmers game the reviews system, misrepresent their application in the description, and generally try to swindle the honest buyer."
The hacker went on to suggest anti-piracy solutions such as free trial versions being made available by Apple and the developers, or ad-supported versions distributed for free. Since Apple hasn't implemented these yet, many agree that the App Store is downright flawed.
"Many developers are upset that the (Apple) digital rights management is broken and nobody has gotten a response from Apple, that I know of," Bossert, co-founder of Fairlady Media, told CNet News on Tuesday. "The pirates are so far ahead of Apple, now that [...] games are cracked the day or the day after they are released."
Bossert was curious about the tools used by the pirate to crack his app. "Most_uniQue" said he used Crackulous, a "one-tap" cracking software developed by Hackulous, to crack the app. Apparently, he is retiring after cracking 35 apps.
Bossert, for his part, said he planned to release a free, ad-supported version of Whack 'em, following the incident. "I'll leave the 99 cent version out there and see what happens," he added. Apple couldn't be reached for a statement.