App Store = The End of Jailbreaking / Huge Opportunity for Programmers
by Jody Mitoma on March 29, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Apple’s been hard at work with the new SDK (Software Development Kit). They had first started work on this in May of ‘07. Since then, they’ve released not only the first beta, but also, the second beta of the kit for public download and use.
It just goes to wonder; will this be the end of jailbreaking for us iPhone and iPod Touch owners? I, personally, don’t see a reason to have to jailbreak an iPhone/Touch once the App Store is released later this year, in June. The App Store will allow for SDK built applications, games, and widgets to be downloaded straight off of your iPhone/Touch without having to do any 74 step jailbreaking procedures, or even just having to go through the trouble of downloading third-party software which will jailbreak the device ten times quicker, and ten times easier.
I feel that being able to download apps solely from the App Store is not the best choice Apple has made, but then again, it really isn’t all that big of a deal – except for if you were planning on releasing an app that Apple would not agree with, because then, it’ll be a bit of a pain in the ass. In fact, this would be the only reason for jailbreaking an iPhone/Touch… To run copyright infringed games, porn, malware, etc.
My guess is, jailbreaking will still end in June; when the new firmware is released for public download. Me personally? I’m happy that this’ll be the end of jailbreaking. Going from a jailbroken firmware 1.1.2 iPod Touch, to a jailbroken firmware 1.1.3 iPod Touch took me over 6 hours to complete. That was before ZiPhone was released, though.
Apple was smart in developing and releasing the SDK for the iPhone and iPod Touch. They were even smarter in adding the App Store to the new upcoming firmware release (2.0.0). I know for a fact that I am not the only one that is excited about the App Store’s release later this year.
Just remember. Apple announced a couple weeks back that there were 100,000 SDK downloads in less than a week. One hundred thousand! Also, don’t forget that there are many, many companies, and developers out there that are working on more than just one application or game. Take Gameloft for example. They’ve announced earlier this year that they would be releasing at least 15 games for the iPhone and iPod Touch this year alone! Microsoft employees have even downloaded the SDK, so be on the lookout for what they’ve got coming for us, too…
Check these stats out. Even if only 10% of the SDK downloaders were to develop applications and games for our nifty little devices, we’d still be cramped with over 10,000 applications and games to scroll through in June. Lets just hope to God that the App Store is well organized! Also, Apple seems pretty confident that “most” of the applications and games for download from within the App Store are going to be FREE. I hope this proves to be true. I have a feeling that a lot of apps/games will have a price tag, even if that price tag were to be as low as $1..
Keep reading. It gets interesting. 
Just think of it this way. If you knew that an application (or game) that you were working on, was to be right in front of the multi-millions of iPhone and iPod Touch owners, would you not want to take the opportunity to make some nice pocket change.. even if that pocket change ended up being only $1 per download? Remember, you as the developer get back 70% of the total revenue made off of your app/game downloads. Apple keeps 30%..
Lets say that there were approximately 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches sold around the world by the time June hits (Who knows, Apple might have even sold more than this already). Now lets say, just for the sake of being able to, that 2% of all iPhone and iPod Touch owners bought your $1.00 application. That would mean that your application, solely, on its own, was downloaded by over 600,000 people. Impressive! Now, remember, you’re selling your app for only $1.00, so, it will appeal to a large audience of people. Mind you, not as large of an audience as, say, if your application was distributed for free, of course. But, that’s besides the point. By making your application one buck, you would profit $420,000.00 off of that one app alone. Four hundred and twenty thousand dollars! That’s incredible. Even if you only sold your application to 1% of the iPhone/Touch population, that’s still an astonishing $210,000.00! Now, lets say you only sold your application to ‘only’ 0.1% of the population of iPhone/Touch owners… Hey, nothing to frown upon, man! That’s still an incredible $42,000.00 in your pocket! Pretty impressive stuff, aye? Kinda makes you wanna become an object-c programmer, doesn’t it? I sure as hell know it makes me wish I knew how to program!
Basically, what I’m trying to say is, if you know object-c and/or jiggy, you should seriously consider creating your own personally application or game for the iPhone/Touch in time for the release of the App Store in June, or even after its been released. You sure as hell will not regret it. That is a fact (well, almost). Also, keep in mind, that there were only 100,000 downloads of the iPhone/Touch SDK beta 1. Apple has yet to share the value of how many beta 2 downloads there have been. And even then, we’ve still got the full SDK release to take into consideration here.
Now, taking things in a different direction here. Albeit, it may be the end of jailbreaking, it certainly will not be the end of attempting to unlock your iPhone. I know for a fact that this will go on for as long as the iPhone exists, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing Apple can do to stop it…. yet.
If you were to take in but one thing from this opinion piece, make it this: You will not be disappointed with the release of the App Store this upcoming June. It will astonish you.
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Posted in Jailbreak, Opinion Editorials, iPhone OS 2.0
March 29th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
i would like too let you know on iPodTouchFans blog there is a new entry, which has just been added, the iPhone Dev team have a jailbrake software “Pwnage” or “iPwnage” if you will that they have said that it will be able to jailbreak 1.2(2.0) so it has the app store and installer! so why not have both, jailbreaking will never die, not aslong as apple has there rules, understandbly are to protect from legal trouble and stop malware but emulators and other applications will always be wanted as an assential part of iPhone/iPod Touch gaming that makes jailbreaking so desirable.
Long Live Jailbreaking!
March 29th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
You may be right, but be it known that the Installer.app (and Cydia) will lose a lot of traffic from the jailbreaking community once June rolls around.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
cool. I was planning on un-jailbreaking my ipod before the SDK release anyway but you, Jody, makes me so excited for it. Also i was wondering could apple somehow put up an update that scans your ipods files for any jailbreaking files or anything and then do something about it. Cause im kinda scared about it with the upcoming 2.0.0.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
ipodtoucher, You’ve got nothing to worry about.
Jailbreaking is in no way illegal, or against Apple’s policies.
It’s known that they know what we are doing – and they’re trying as hard as they could to prevent us from doing it – but with failure.
Apple will not, and would never stop us (jailbreakers) from using the App Store, if that’s what you’re coming by. They’d just be losing out on their own profit, and trust me, profit isn’t the only thing they’d be losing.
Apple is smarter than that. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
eh i’ll just use both the app store and installer
it’s not like installer is a hassle to use or it takes up a ton of space, why not have both
that and i can’t live without my emulators D:
installer also seems easier to keep organized (using repo.sc) ‘cos you can choose what you want to have in it and you won’t have to look through 10,000+ things
if that’s what part of your article was about then nvm, i didn’t read it cos it’s freakishly long and it didn’t interest me
March 29th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
No worries here:D apple would be breaking privacy acts lol
things will find a way of smoothing themselves out, even though you are right Jody this will be a big blow on the jailbreaking scenes resources but this will also take apples eye of attention away from jailbreaking as it will be, either given up or be less common which might take pressure off some develops and what they are up to. So it has negative and positive effects, so we wont know really intill June, scary, yet interesting to where people will go, dont you think?
Oh and also, great work on the graphic design, again with this one, i like it alot.:)
March 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I doubt jailbreaking will cease to be relevant. Remember, there are still quite a few things that will not be possible with the SDK, either because Apple wants no part of it, or the SDK does not allow the developers to accomplish certain things. Consider:
- No emulators.
- No schedulers, agendas or appointment books with reminders, alternative alarm clocks, scrobbling, instant messengers or alternative E-Mail clients or SMS programs that stay active, springboard enhancements (SummerBoard, Caterpillar), or any other type of program that needs to stay resident.
- No enhancements that interface with the music player. (No custom EQ, no PocketTouch, etc.)
- No access to the dock connector. (No cameras or other accessories not developed through the Made for iPod/iPhone program)
- No apps that interface with or access data from any of the built-it iPod apps.
And more. None of these will be possible with the SDK, not in its present form. The only solution for any of these is and will remain jailbreaking.
Incidentally, jailbreaking is against Apple policy; that’s why it voids your warranty. But no, it’s not by any means illegal. Apple just doesn’t like it.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I think I am going to stick with jailbreaking, mostly because of emulators and the fact that not everything will be ported to the SDK.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Btw, the firmware comparison page is incorrect. 1.1.3 and 4 support full themes just as much as earlier firmwares. Its just that the other.artwork must be ported. (the same as 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.)
March 29th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Thank you toomuch.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I’m still running 1.1.1 firmware. Actually I had upgraded to 1.1.2 on the day I got my iPod Touch, but when Apple decided to gouge everyone who got one for Christmas for $20, that was the end of being legit and I jailbroke it later that day. I don’t use any emulators right now. However I do use ebook readers etc… And Apple are being very restrictive in what they allow to be done with the SDK. For example I’m running Apache and PHP and have a ton of documents and stuff that I read locally on the device.
There is ONE particular item I’m hoping comes out on installer.app that I’ve been waiting for ages for, but I’ve not even seen anything about it being developed. If it came out on the Appstore that might be enough to make me legit, but don’t forget Jobs has pretty much said iPod Touch owners are going to be charged to both access the Appstore, and to get apps.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:39 am
@UncleBoogie – Touch users will only be charged to upgrade to 2.0, as we were with 1.1.3. You can thank the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for that; Apple didn’t really have any choice. There will otherwise be no fee to access the store. Additionally, it is up to the developers what they want to charge for their apps, and the option of not charging anything at all is there. Apple doesn’t charge for code signing, so other than the initial $99 developer program fee, devs won’t lose anything if they want to make free apps.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:37 am
You appear to have taken an odd change of direction in opinion here… it seems odd to promote many things that will not be available from the AppStore (such as PocketTouch, Advanced Preferences, Firefox ports, iPod Touch VoIP clients, SummerBoard, emulators, and so on), yet claim that come June, you won’t bother to jailbreak, in order to get the applications you think are worth writing about.
March 30th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Maybe I didn’t take enough time to think about this one. In fact, I actually forgot that Apple won’t be allowing for apps that make use of the media player to be added to the App Store.
James, simply because I write about something does not mean I use or want it. I’m running this website for you (the readers), not myself. I personally have no need for Advanced Prefs, Mobile Firefox ports, or VoIP clients. Pocket Touch, I do use, and love, though. However, I can deal without Summerboard and emulators. Who knows, I may change my mind, come June. We’ll see.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Of course jailbreaking will stay because it has better apps and the appstore costs money.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:49 am
I think I am going to use both the app store and installer because there will probably be a lot of unique apps from both of them am installer might have stuff that the app store doesn’t and vice versa. I also would like to be able to customize my iPod such as the slider and the background.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Hi
Appstore is great, but who would pay when all the good ones can be had for free..
they worked for a year on this? lol
who would jailbreak if the apps are able to be loaded straight onto your phone?
hmm let me see…. all the paid apps free. able to use programs apple refuses to publish,change your phone to look better?
anyone with half a brain and a survival instinct still lurking around in them, what?
Stupid!!