Sam OliverCiting a "a person familiar with the technology," BusinessWeek reports that the forthcoming software update "includes features that, if activated by Apple, may let users share software with one another." The publication goes on to speculate that such a feature could even be expanded to allow iPhone users to generate a commission "when they've induced someone else to make a purchase."
The ability to try applications before buying them has been a sore point with App Store shoppers. In an attempt to address this, some app developers have released "lite" versions of their apps that are free or close to free and include only a few levels or features of the full-fledged version.
This, however, adds a few more steps to the purchasing process for a potential buyer, since a second trip to the App Store must be made to purchase the full version. Additionally, the user will probably want to delete the lite version from the iPhone to free up memory and avoid confusing the two apps, which often have similar icons.
With the tens of thousands of apps available in the App Store today, shopping for interesting and useful applications can be a challenge. Friends and family often share common interests, and the ability to learn of a new application, obtain it directly from a friend or family member, and try it out could present a more streamlined approach to app shopping in many instances.
Apple has seeded five betas of iPhone Software 3.0 to date in which numerous discoveries pertaining to future software and hardware features have been made, but Wednesday's claim is the first to suggest application sharing capabilities will be amongst the software's highlights.
Apple reportedly declined to comment on the matter, with spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock stating that, "We’ve made no announcements at this time."
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
32 Comments
You can already share purchased apps with family iPhone users on condition that they're on the same iTMS account. For instance my wife and I both have iPhones, use a common family iTMS account, and can each download the same apps for a single payment.
Jennifer Bowcock's got herself a pretty easy job.
You can already share purchased apps with family iPhone users on condition that they're on the same iTMS account. For instance my wife and I both have iPhones, use a common family iTMS account, and can each download the same apps for a single payment.
I think
that's illegal and considered piracy. I read at gizmodo that Apple will be ending this soon.
When you buy an App, you're buying a license to use that app. That app can only be used on the device intended. What people are doing is letting their friends go into their account and download all their apps without paying for it. Someone paid for it at least once, but the app can be tossed around to anyone at that point. Pretty stupid and obvious loophole if you ask me. It's amazing Apple didn't prepare for this.
I guess part of the lure of the iPhone was if you upgrade your phone to a different model (8gig to 16gig for instance) then you can bring your apps with you. Don't know how this will work now. I guess you have to register the phone with the itunes account, and only one phone can be registered with the account at a time...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it is this new "share" method would simply be like linking a friend to an app. Like, "Look at this cool app. Here I'll send it to you so you can buy it."
that's illegal and considered piracy. Apple will be ending this soon.
I don't think so. Afaik Apple explicitly allows all your music, videos and apps to be used on up to five devices.
I hope they call it squirting.