Site Claims to Sell iPhone Apps at Half Price

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Apple iPhone owners hungry to install popular applications for their phones on the cheap might want to use caution when considering buying and downloading iPhone Apps from anyone besides Apple, according to numerous people expressing concern about the Web site -- iPhoneApps.org which claims to sell top iPhone Apps at half price.

To be clear, I can't vouch for iPhoneApps.org's status, business model, or legitimacy. Nevertheless, the site is under scrutiny and discussion online at Gizmodo and at Apple discussion groups. Sites theorizing about iPhoneApps.org's status are asking, isn't Apple the sole distributor of iPhone applications? Steve Jobs seems to indicate Apple is.

Jobs said that Apple is the exclusive distributor of official iPhone applications when he announced the App Store during a keynote address at the Apple World Wide Developers Forum in June.

As of this writing, the iPhoneApps.org site appears as the top search result for a Google query for "iPhone apps." This, no doubt, boosts the site's visibility and improves the odds it's a stop for iPhone owners searching the Web for Apple iPhone Apps.

Half Price iPhone Apps

The site advertises the iPhone's "top 10" applications for a flat fee of $25. Payment is accepted using PayPal, according to the site. By my math, the top ten sellers at the Apple App Store (via iTunes) would run $65.

Earlier today, the iPhoneApps.org site was not functioning properly, but now seems to be open for business. iPhoneApps.org's "live chat" feature and its "send feedback" form were both not working when I tried using them. I'm also still waiting for a reply to an e-mail sent to the site using an e-mail address listed in its Internet registration paperwork.

I'm also waiting to hear back from Apple to see if it has anything say about iPhoneApps.org.

Some discussion about iPhoneApps.org at Yahoo Answers claims iPhoneApps.org sells access to a freeware tool called ZiPhone. According to the ZiPhone.org site, it offers a way to hack (or jailbreak) the iPhone with a ZiPhone application.

I couldn't confirm this.

The ZiPhone.org site doesn't provide a lot of information about how its jailbreak program works.

I recommend steering clear of any third-party sites selling iPhone Apps and sites offering jailbreaks for the iPhone that don't document explicitly what you?re about to do to your iPhone.

I'll keep you posted on anything else we learn, too.

Comments

I found a very interesting article called: The Missing Guide to the iPhone 3G Price. (What Apple Forgot to Tell Us). You should check it out!

ChrisAndersonUS

July 21, 2008

1:26 PM PT

I found a very interesting article called: The Missing Guide to the iPhone 3G Price. (What Apple Forgot to Tell Us). You should check it out!

ChrisAndersonUS

July 21, 2008

1:27 PM PT

Don't forget you can get lots of free webapps as well by going to http://www.appsafari.com
or
http://apple.com/webapps

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