Comments on: Wind-up Kinght developer: Piracy rates on iOS and Android are comparable, China is the main source

By: TA

TA — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:04:00 +0000

Did anyone check the title of this article : “Whind-up Kinght” ?

By: Richard A Smith

Richard A Smith — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Not surprising..

Ummm… spell-check? Title reads “Whind-up Kinght developer:…”

By: Bogdan Petrovan

Bogdan Petrovan — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Hey Chris, I’ve changed the title to accurately reflect your position, thank you for the time you took to add to the discussion!

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:26:00 +0000

Thailand is a good place to find iOS/Android piracy as well.

It’s standard procedure to “buy apps” for your device at a mobile phone shop, which means for 500 baht (around $15) your device will get loaded with a shitload of applications.

If you are buying the device at a mobile phone shop, not through a mobile provider, you will get this service for free, your phone will come preloaded, on my iPhone it was like 10 pages of mixed applications, including
games and whatever the shop owner thought could be useful to have. My android phone came out of the box there and I had to tell them several times that i don’t want applications, just give me as it is, i will set up myself.

Btw, it’s the same when buying computers/notebooks and windows: you can get windows and all the ‘important’ (as decided by the shop) software preinstalled (office, photoshop, etc.)

By: Chris Pruett

Chris Pruett — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:40:00 +0000

I’m glad my tweets were interesting, but I’m afraid the title of this article is putting a few words into my mouth. Based on the single data point I have (Wind-up Knight), we see piracy rates on both iOS and Android as extremely similar–only a few percentage points apart, which is well within the margin of error for this kind of calculation. Furthermore, both rates are quite low, probably because Wind-up Knight is a free game. Rather than casting this as an iOS vs Android argument, the more interesting discussion here is the role of China when calculating “lost revenue,” (which I think is almost zero) and the differences between free apps and paid apps. Both platforms have pirates. Whether or not it matters, and whether or not the platforms are significantly different, is a more interesting question (hint: they are similar and it doesn’t matter).

Cheers,
Chris

By: John Stock

John Stock — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:56:00 +0000

Why re-hash the same story but from another developer?

By: Perry Ahern

Perry Ahern — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:39:00 +0000

That’s very interesting. I’d like to see revised versions of the piracy rate and malware infection reports that account for the China “factor” – stats that show both angles: “with China” and “without China.”