Rogue App Stores Look to Give Apple a Run for Its Money

One of Apple’s most effective strategies has been its “all roads lead to Rome” approach for its consumer electronics. Buying and using an Apple product means using Apple portals like iTunes to receive software updates and manage content and the iTunes Store and iPhone App Store to purchase music and video content and applications. While the strategy has been logical and functional for entertainment-oriented devices like the iPod, it has been a point of controversy with the App Store, where third-party applications developers give up 30% of each sale to Apple--if their apps even make it in, that is.

But, that could all be changing. Several iPhone apps developers are going rogue with plans to open their own stores for “jailbroken” iPhones where apps unavailable in Apple’s App Store can be purchased and downloaded.



Chief among the rogue apps stores is Cydia, which plans to offer applications like Cycorder, an application that turns the iPhone into a camcorder, and PdaNET, an application that gives the iPhone laptop modem functionality to connect to the internet. Both of these applications are unavailable in the App Store and can only be downloaded by modified—“jailbroken”—iPhones.

Rogue app store operators like Cydia hold that Apple unfairly profits from iPhone owners by restricting their options for purchasing and downloading apps to the manufacturer’s store and limiting and simplifying their choice of apps. Moreover, developers often struggle for their apps to become noticed even when they manage to meet Apple’s approval.

Apple has defended itself by stating that its practices are to protect iPhone owners and ensure a degree of quality for all apps featured on its site.

While Apple claims that modifying iPhone software is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the legal territory is still unexplored, with little legal precedent to give a clear advantage to either Apple or its new competitors.

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