Last month, we wrote about the problem of Android app piracy, and the ready availability of paid-for apps through sites such as The Pirate Bay. Games and pricey navigation apps topped the chart of most stolen Android software, but the maker of one of the leading satnav apps on the platform, CoPilot Live, is doing just fine. In fact, it’s booming.
ALK Technologies, the company behind the CoPilot Live navigation apps for iOS and Android, announced this week that sales on Android have grown 40 percent year on year, comparing October to December 2010 and 2011.
ALK does not say how many downloads of CoPilot Live it has sold (and as a private company, does not release it quarterly earnings) but the company has consistently ranked highly in the top grossing chart on the Android Market since it first debuted in 2009. AppBrain.com figures show that six versions of its software have been purchased between 10-50,000 times, suggesting the Android Market has generated the New Jersey based company well over £1 million in revenue, and likely far more.
Exclusive: Meet the Android app millionaires
That’s in spite of a high pricetag (£22.49 for UK and Ireland mapping), Android users’ general reticence to pay for apps when compared to their iPhone using counter-parts, and the problem of Android app piracy.
Since Android phones can install sideloaded apps, it has become commonplace for hackers to rip the install file, or APK, of apps downloaded from the Market, and make them available elsewhere. At the time of writing, at least 293 people were sharing complete versions of CoPilot Live for Android on The Pirate Bay alone, but ALK’s marketing director, David Quin, told Electricpig that he doesn’t consider piracy a huge concern.
TomTom tries to change the conversation: It’s about “sexy” traffic
“As a premium app developer, we are always concerned about attempts to distribute illegal copies of CoPilot Live,” he said. “We remain vigilant to the threat of software theft of course, however authorized sales of our CoPilot Live Premium Android navigation apps are growing very strongly.”
Quin says that, despite the number of fileshares distributing paid-for apps online, Google’s anti-piracy solutions are effective. When CoPilot first debuted on Android, ALK used its own license verification checks, but the company has since dropped these in place of Google’s own licensing checks.
A tale of two platforms: Why Grand Theft Auto 3 exposes Android’s greatest weakness
Apps that use these can make regular calls to the Android Market to check whether the same Google account has purchased the app: if it hasn’t, the app can lock up, or even remove features based on the developers’ choice.
“Verification,” Quin says, “in our opinion provides robust security.”
CoPilot’s growth is also remarkable given given that Android offers several competent, free and legal navigation apps. Google Maps Navigation, which we described as “Year Zero” for satnav when it was launched in 2009, comes built in to every new phone, while crowd-sourced effort Waze is racking up users globally. This week, the Israeli start-up announced that it had 12 million users.
Yet despite all these troubles, CoPilot is going from strength to strength. It’s proof that with the right product, and the right pricing (CoPilot Live sells for less than half the price of TomTom for iPhone, yet offers very similar features) even miserly Android users will get out the credit card.
What do you think? Is CoPilot the exception rather than the rule? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
