If you are an iPhone or iTouch users, chances are, your iDevice is jailbroken. If that’s the case, you sure do know what is Cydia, and know all about the Cydia Store. Before , we had a Cydia store, you could download an app, and pay the dev directly via Paypal. Now, all commercial apps can be easily spotted in Cydia, and you buy them directly through paypal or amazon payments. Ok, nothing new so far ( at least not for some/many of you ) , but in the last couple of days we are keep on seeing this Appsidy thingy . Well what is Appsidy?
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL Appsidy is a new App Store that like others (RockApp) is said to simplify purchasing jailbroken iPhone apps and themes.. Well , first of all, most of the themes out there, should not be sold. Dudes, really, don’t just get a nice looking wallpaper, create ( or digg for ) a nice looking icon set and call it a day…. a $1+ day. Second of all, did any of you use paypal or amazon payments? It’s not brain surgery , and at the moment , you just reinvented the wheel .
With Appsidy you will get:
- Purchase apps with ease! ( Fire your marketing dude/team. really!!!! )
- No Paypal fees! We won’t charge you extra to use paypal.
- Accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Mastercard, and Paypal.
- Option: Save payment information . Don’t need to type payment info everytime!
Login:
- Login via Google Accouns, Facebook or RockID
- Your Device will automatically be authorized for downloads for 7 day (unless you press “sign out”)
This has the potential to turn into something great, but i really doubt the creators of Appsidy ( RockApp = IntelliBorn ) have the balls to compete with two giants in the game Paypal ( Ebay , still owned by Ebay right? ) and Amazon. At the moment, people around forums are reporting only problems with the new payment system, such as buying multiple apps (through appsidy ) and not getting charged for all of them. Understand that if they/you don’t get charge, you won’t be able to download the package.
Here is what Saurik has to say about Appsidy:
(For the record, Appsidy == Rock == IntelliBorn: they are all the same people operating under different names.)
For a user, Appsidy’s “no refunds” policy is quite damning . Also, most of the people using PayPal are overseas, and the currency conversion costs drastically outweigh the current $0.25 fee I charge (which I’ve actually been working with my PayPal representative to fix).
If you are in the US I encourage you to use Amazon, which not only provides a mobile-formatted checkout process but also is integrated into Cydia in a way that lets me save your payment information in a manner similar to that claimed by Rock.
A) What I just explained is that the $0.25 is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the conversion costs, not that it /is/ somehow the conversion costs. I could do the math out for you on the Amazon micropayments vs. PayPal rates, but you can also do that and see that $0.25 is fair. The point is that I have never once gotten a complain regarding the $0.25 ;P. What I am working with PayPal on is figuring out how to determine what payments have to go through a micropayments account which which ones don’t, in order to get similar rates.
(This price is also upfront to the user, which you claim it isn’t: it is very obvious that this cost is applied before you even choose a purchasing agent.)
B) The Cydia Store license transfer system is automated for the first four devices. After that you need to talk to someone. That means that it is already better than the Rock license transfer system, even before you have to speak to someone. Also, as of two weeks ago, the mechanism was tweaked to mean that users probably never have to e-mail me no matter how many devices they want to get on their account, as there is now a time-weighted mechanism for handling the linkages.
C) As for Amazon Payments, anyone who has ever bought anything from Amazon has an Amazon account. In the US for online purchasers that is an insane percentage. If you actually look at the rates of usages of Amazon Payments vs. PayPal in Cydia you see about 45% of users happily using Amazon Payments.
D) I am fine with competition, and never stated otherwise. However, I will take this opportunity to say that competition should be handled in a way that is open, honest, and transparent. Even this person doesn’t know who the players involved are here, and nearly all of your statements in this last followup are incorrect.
