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The study released by the Boston based consultancy firm, Yankee Group, and Skyhook Wireless, a mobile location data company, shows that Android developers are losing serious amount of money due to the activities of software pirates. The survey covered 75 Android developers, from 22 countries, each of which has a popular paid app in the Android market. Developers were asked 15 questions explicitly about Android piracy and their experience with it. They were also offered the opportunity to comment on their experiences with piracy.
The survey found that 27% of the developers consider software piracy to be big problem. Another 26% of those surveyed see piracy as somewhat of a problem. 53% of developers say Google is too lax when it comes to patrolling the Android Market, as a result of which the Android developers do not make as much revenue as the iOS developers. Some Android developers have claimed that piracy is costing them as much as $10000 in revenue and support costs. Apple uses binary machine code to compile and distribute apps that protects them so that pirates cannot easily change and redistribute apps.
In a press release, Carl Howe, author of the Yankee Group report, said, Android apps are living in the Wild West without a sheriff. With five other major mobile OSs competing for consumer dollars, Google cant afford to simply let pirates kill app developers businesses. They need to foster some law and order or developers will flee to other platforms and Android will lose customers.
One-in-four developers say that piracy increases their server costs, with all those extra users piling onto their servers. Copying apps on the Android system is remarkably easy. Java apps compile into interpreted byte codes that pirates can easily decompile, deploying the apps on other marketplaces under similar names. Googles licensing verification library is easy to defeat. The survey also indicates that Apple users are download six times more paid apps than Android users do.
In the survey, Android app maker SmartDyne is quoted as saying, Software piracy is a tremendous problem concerning Android apps, especially if apps act as a background service. The Google license server policy is not satisfying all needs. In many countries, data flat rates are either not available or are very expensive so users tend to deactivate the mobile data connection. As a result, background services become unavailable from time to time. The only solution is a license key policy based on accounts and/or device IDs. But this results in higher effort for every purchased app and of course higher costs.
These complaints from developers are coming at a time when the market for mobile, Internet-connected apps has grown phenomenally. Recently technology analyst, Ovum, released its report predicting that app downloads will surge 144% to 18 billion this year, from 7.4 billion downloads in 2010. Carl Howe, author of the Yankee Group report, says, With five other major mobile OSs competing for consumer dollars, Google cant afford to simply let pirates kill app developers businesses. They need to foster some law and order or developers will flee to other platforms and Android will lose customers.
There is no doubt that Google can do better when it comes to patrolling its Android OS. In the past we have had numerous reports of malaware creeping into the Android Market place. Right now the burden for thwarting piracy falls mostly on the app developers, perhaps Google could take the initiative.
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