Sunday, March 8, 2009

The IPhone Jailbroken AppStore: Will it fly?

The IPhone has been on the news buzz consistently and well, for multiple reasons. The latest buzz is that of the introduction of the Cydia App Store for the jailbroken world (the dark side).

To me, this is a very interesting development. The biggest question which will also help us answer whether the Cydia App Store will really kick off is this - Why will application developers flock the Jailbroken App Store instead of Apple's own App Store which has a higher reach? Also can the Jailbroken App Store provide something really special that motivates users to instead unlock their phones and switch over?

The IPhone App Store has been one of the biggest hits of the previous year and has grown in leaps and bounds. But it is not without it's own quirks - thanks to Apple's restrictions (some mindless). If the Jailbroken App Store leverages Apple's restrictions and provides unique Apps which can entice users, it can not only become a big success but also sound an alarm bell (deservedly so in some cases) to Apple.

Here're some Apps which can make big on the Cydia App Store and tempt users to jump to the dark side
  1. Turn-by-turn navigation: It's weird that Apple neither allows developers to develop apps for turn-by-turn voice guide navigation not has it release one on it's own. People have proved in the past that the IPhone GPS is good enough to build turn-by-turn navigation apps. This will a hot category of apps in the Jailbroken world
  2. Tethering: Well, using the IPhone as modem and connecting your laptop to the Internet is very enticing possibility. Besides the fact that Apple has no App to do this, it is clear (due to AT&T restrictions) that IPhone Tethering with come at a big cost (atleast 30$/month and with a data restriction - like 5Gb). The high cost and the insane restriction alone can lure people into the jailbroken world where this is available without a penny cost.
  3. Copy/Paste Functionality: Well again, not a dealbreaker but Apple still has no solution for implementing Copy/Paste Functionality and already there're apps on the Jailbroken world which has some implementions of Copy/Paste apps (may not be clean solutions but who cares!)
  4. Video Recorder: For some reason, Apple App Store has no apps which allow video recording. Neither is there a native implementation by Apple. One can find a few apps (like Cycorder) to do this in the jailbroken world.
  5. Adult apps: This category alone can rocket the Jailbroken App Store to success. No more shall I comment...
- Others: MMS apps, podcast apps, new browsers, (maybe flash apps), the list of apps which Apple doesn't allow currently are many...

Add to the above restrictions, the weird Approval Process by Apple. Besides being very strict on following good standard and being high quality, the Approval Process is a mystery as it has in many cases rejected apps for no logical reason. The latest is the Sirius radio app developed for the IPhone. It is a pity when people's time and money are wasted when their fully-tested apps are rejected for no obvious reason. It is but a logical fallout for these people to take their apps over to the jailbroken world.

In my opinion, I think the Cydia App Store will have it's own niche market and in fact will spark off an increase in the number of jailbroken phones. This will also be a rude awakening to Apple to plug some of the pitfalls in the SDK and types of apps allowed in the App Store and actually make the Application Review process more transparent.

Will I be one of those to jump to the dark world: would love a turn-by-turn navigation app and the video recording one... But will hold off for another couple of months to give Apple another chance and to see what more the Cydia can really deliver.

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