Appsidy, the newest Cydia store payment method has just been released and is in fact the service that Zodttd decided to use as the store to sell his N64iPhone emulator on.
As I have bought the emulator through the service, I can tell you first hand that it is not good at least not at the moment. I cannot update the emulator for whatever reason. It wants me to pay it again to update it.
However I suppose that this problem could be a result of it being just released so I will give it some time to sort itself out but it is still disappointing.
On a post on iPhone Enthusiasts, Saurik has posted his opinion on Appsidy and the fact that Appsidy is owned by the same people who created the Rock application. Here are Saurik’s comments:
Comment 1:
(For the record, Appsidy == Rock == IntelliBorn: they are all the same people operating under different names.)
For a user, Appsidy’s “no refunds” policy is quite damning
. Also, most of the people using PayPal are overseas, and the currency conversion costs drastically outweigh the current $0.25 fee I charge (which I’ve actually been working with my PayPal representative to fix).
If you are in the US I encourage you to use Amazon, which not only provides a mobile-formatted checkout process but also is integrated into Cydia in a way that lets me save your payment information in a manner similar to that claimed by Rock.
A representive of Appsidy’s response:
The Paypal international currency conversion fee is 2.5%. Thus, only on sales of $10 or more would it equate (only one app is in your store is over $10). So unfortunately, the Cydia Store is “drastically” charging users unjustified additional fees. Also, if it were to address the conversion rate, why wouldn’t it be a percent of the sale? And what about US users – why are they charged the $0.25? Obviously, the Cydia Store is charging additional fees separate from the cost to:
- A) Say the price is one amount, but really checkout with a greater cost.
- B) Increase the percentage Cydia store takes from the developer, but behind their back. This is very poor practice to devs and customers.Apple does over $1 billion in sales with a no refund policy. We think the community understands what they’re getting into when they buy an app for $1 and risk not liking it
.
With Paypal’s 2.4+ billion in sales, we think users have clearly made a statement of which payment processor they prefer. Who’s heard of Amazon Payments?
A great feature of Appsidy, is that users can also use their RockID – so regardless of where you purchase your item, you can install inside Rock and Cydia. Also – there have been many complaints of users returning phones and the Cydia store not allowing them to download. We have an automated built-in device transfers – so you don’t have to worry about this or contact someone and wait for a response. And you don’t have to wait 2+ weeks to get a response from us (typically < 48 hours).
Finally, yes – the founder of the companies is the same person – but each company offers different value and services.
We think there’s room for competition in the jailbroken community – and we hope to improve user experience and overall jailbroken community satisfaction through your feedback. Thanks Jay for your help and feedback!
Saurik’s reponse:
A) What I just explained is that the $0.25 is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the conversion costs, not that it /is/ somehow the conversion costs. I could do the math out for you on the Amazon micropayments vs. PayPal rates, but you can also do that and see that $0.25 is fair. The point is that I have never once gotten a complain regarding the $0.25 ;P. What I am working with PayPal on is figuring out how to determine what payments have to go through a micropayments account which which ones don’t, in order to get similar rates.
(This price is also upfront to the user, which you claim it isn’t: it is very obvious that this cost is applied before you even choose a purchasing agent.)
B) The Cydia Store license transfer system is automated for the first four devices. After that you need to talk to someone. That means that it is already better than the Rock license transfer system, even before you have to speak to someone. Also, as of two weeks ago, the mechanism was tweaked to mean that users probably never have to e-mail me no matter how many devices they want to get on their account, as there is now a time-weighted mechanism for handling the linkages.
C) As for Amazon Payments, anyone who has ever bought anything from Amazon has an Amazon account. In the US for online purchasers that is an insane percentage. If you actually look at the rates of usages of Amazon Payments vs. PayPal in Cydia you see about 45% of users happily using Amazon Payments.
D) I am fine with competition, and never stated otherwise. However, I will take this opportunity to say that competition should be handled in a way that is open, honest, and transparent. Even this person doesn’t know who the players involved are here, and nearly all of your statements in this last followup are incorrect.
Have you had a bad experience with Appsidy?
