Mobile app makers that are looking to enter the Chinese market or perhaps even the mobile app market overall have some good news to look forward to. Not only are there roughly 200 million Android and iOS devices in circulation in China, but jailbreaking is down from last year. According to Umeng, the biggest Chinese mobile app analytics company, only 42.4% of mainland iOS devices are jailbroken, down from 51% in the second quarter of 2011. The number does seem quite astonishing but Umeng says jailbreaking is down because Apple started to allow consumers to use local bank cards over the last year in the App Store.
One may ask, why exactly a decreasing number of jailbroken phones is important. If you haven’t guessed it already, it’s because there are fewer chances for consumers to pirate apps or in-app purchases, which eats into profit margins of developers.
If the trend is apparent in China, it might very well be likely that the case is the same in other countries as well. Especially with the jailbreak for newer iOS devices still in the development stage, consumers who decided to jump the bandwagon to the latest iterations of their favorite iOS devices are still currently left without a jailbreak. This in itself prevents piracy since the option isn’t even available to many consumers.
Based on the facts about the status of the jailbreak along with the fact that Apple’s market share is slightly declining, Umeng states that jailbreaking seems to be on the decline.
I personally am not using a jailbroken iPhone at the moment. Although I do miss having certain tweaks that added additional features to the iOS platform that I found useful, I don’t see myself in dire need of using them. How about you? Are you using a jailbroken iOS device? What are your thoughts on being jailbroken?
Source: Umeng via TechCrunch
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