When Apple’s AppStore was created there were a lot of people that were disappointed because of the idea of not being able to write and install applications independently from Apple. Some people created sites and repositories that worked with Cydia and other applications letting the users with jailbroken phones install whatever they wanted, even cracked applications. Of course this was a double-sided weapon for developers. In one side, they could develop and distribute applications without Apple’s approval. This was more attractive after jailbreaking your iPhone became legal. On the other side, people could crack any application and distribute it for free (piracy!). Some people created these sites and applications with the idea of letting users try out the application before buying it, but of course many people just kept using the apps without ever paying for it.
Just this week Apple relaxed the restrictions on the development tools used to create apps, reverting some of their restrictions set at the beginning of the year. Now many developers that were distributing applications on Cydia and other repositories are going to submit their apps to Apple again and many will be approved. While this might be a good thing, I believe that Apple should let us add other repositories on the AppStore and let us, the end-users, use our phones as we will. Apple will not lose anything: a lot of people will stop jailbreaking their phones and developers will keep submitting their apps to Apple as they will want their apps in the main repository (the AppStore). Piracy might not end there, but it might decrease if Apple were to allow trials on their store.
