Rampant piracy rocks indie iPhone developer

During Tap-Fu’s first sale week on the App Store, score submissions from all users showed that an average of 80 per cent had been playing with an illegitimate copy, with that rate peaking at 90 per cent.

The developer said it is “very surprised and concerned at how easy it is” to pirate iPhone games, and even claims that illegally downloading a bogus iPhone title is easier than buying it on iTunes.

Smells Like Donkey then discovered from its own research that zero per cent of the pirate-users went on to purchase the $1.99 game – a telling expose on the hollow claim that pirates “try before we buy”.

There's more on this story over on Develop.