Android Piracy: How Republished Apps Steal Revenue and Increase Costs

(Sep 13 2011) Mobile Internet , Smartphones

1. By Carl Howe, Research Director, Yankee Group

   Despite the ongoing mobile app boom, not all smartphone platforms are participating equally in this app frenzy. 

   When we break down U.S. download statistics by smartphone OS, we discover Android owners download an average of 4.7 free apps a month, while iOS users average 4.1 free downloads each month. Android owners lag in paid downloads, however, downloading an average of 0.2 paid apps each month, while Apple users download six times as many in the same period. 

   For some reason, Android users just don't want to buy software for their phones. This is not just a U.S. phenomenon either; we see the same pattern repeated in Europe.

   To understand this contradiction better, Yankee Group analyzed data collected from interviews with 75 developers conducted by Skyhook, a location-based software and services company. The results are surprising: Android has an app piracy problem.

   Twenty-seven percent of the developers Skyhook surveyed see piracy as a huge problem for their business, and another 26 percent see it as somewhat of a problem. We find:

   • Forty-one percent of developers say piracy forums are the biggest source of piracy. BitTorrent sites account for 26 percent of responses, while refunds for app copies receive 17 percent of responses. And 6 percent say their apps have been republished on an Android app market under someone else's name.
   • More than three-quarters say it's easy to copy and republish an Android app. 
   • Thirty-nine percent say more than 30 percent of their users run pirated copies, and 17 percent think 30-50 percent of their users have pirated copies. 

   Developers say they have asked for help from Google in this battle against piracy, but have been disappointed in the results. Specifically:

   • More than half of developers (54 percent) agree with the statement that Google is too lax about Android Market regulations. 
   • Most say Android apps are too easily copied and modified. 
   • About a third say piracy has cost them in excess of $10,000 in revenue. 

   Android Piracy Is Easy

   Three conditions make app piracy much easier with Android than with Apple's App Store:

   • Multiple app markets and delivery systems. Without a single point of control, pirates can simply move apps from market to market with little fear of being caught.
   • Little editorial review. Google's reluctance to impose app censorship means pirates don't need to expend any effort bypassing app approval processes.
   • Interpreted Java byte codes instead of native compiled code. Once an app is compiled and distributed for the iPhone, pirates can't easily change it and redistribute it because it's all binary machine code. However, the Java programs used for Android apps are distributed in an intermediate form that's much easier to decompile.

   Today, the burden of thwarting Android piracy falls largely on app developers, and if Android were the only mobile OS available, this approach might be acceptable. However, with five other major mobile OSs competing for the smartphone market and most of them offering more control over app piracy, Google can't afford to simply let pirates kill app developers' businesses. Google needs to foster some law and order or developers will flee to other platforms and Android will lose customers.

   Yankee Group believes Google should:

   • Certify app markets. Google should create a market certification program and badge that requires markets to meet standards of trust and accounting, and it should modify Android so that by default, only paid app sales are allowed from these markets. 
   • Provide payment receipts that can be verified online. Developers worried about piracy can have their app do an online check to ensure it's been purchased legitimately. In this way, apps that have been distributed without appropriate controls can disable themselves when they don't see a paid receipt for a particular user/phone. 
   • Build in automatic code obfuscation and tamper checking for apps. Google already offers tools that do these functions. Google just has to automate their use as part of its app distribution process.

   None of these steps will significantly reduce developer freedom, but they will at least make piracy a little more difficult than copying and pasting code.

   Bookmark or Share this article

Login to comment