Podcaster Version 1.1 now available on Cydia
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Podcaster, a native iPhone application that would allow users to download and listen to podcasts directly on your iPhone was recently denied access to the iPhone App Store by Apple. The overall opinion for why this happened was because this application duplicated the functionality of iTunes itself.
Denial into the App Store however did not stop the developer of Podcaster from releasing this amazing application. Earlier this evening I found out that Podcaster has been made available on the iPhone App. Black Market. Users with a Jailbroken iPhone can download Podcaster via the Cydia installer.
What’s intriguing about this development, is that this application retails for $4.99. When you start Podcaster you’re immediately notified that Podcaster is initially avaiable for a 14 day trial period. If you want to purchase Podcaster, you’re then instructed to go to http://www.nextdayoff.com to purchase an activation code that will be emailed to you.
What does this mean?
This means that Apple has just lost out on 30% of the revenue it would have taken on each sale if they would have allowed this application into the iPhone App Store. This also means that this developer can take in 100% of the profits for each activation code he sells.
Apple has made a major mistake by keeping a closed system with tight restrictions on what’s submitted to the iPhone App Store. By doing this they could potentially drive away other developers to find alternative means to distribute their application or find another platform altogether to develop for. Apple has also justified the importance of the iPhone App Black Market and the benefits of jailbreaking your iPhone.
You can find out more information about Podcaster at http://www.nextdayoff.com. Or, you can follow iPhonePodcaster on Twitter.
SPECIAL NOTE
This post was written with iBlogger a native blogging application for the iPhone. iBlogger was created by Illuminex, the creators of Ecto a desktop blogging application for the Mac. Find out more information about iBlogger at http://illuminex.com/iphone/iBlogger .
