I'm not sure about this. Piracy is rampant on Android. "Cracked" versions of Spotify which enable premium for unpaid users are very common. Given developers often prioritise iOS due to the fact users are more willing to pay opening the platform up to piracy could have wide ranging effects on the marketplace as a whole.
AFAIK this is pretty common on iOS too. People use AltStore or similar to auto-sideload Spotify++ or similar every week.
I'm not convinced that the reason people on Apple devices are more willing to pay is because it's harder to pirate. Piracy on Mac is just as easy on Windows, but the typical view is that, like with iPhone vs. Android, Mac users are more willing to pay than Windows users.
I think the real explanation is that there are a lot of cheap Android devices throughout the world, and people who are trying to save money on devices also try to save money on apps. I suspect that if you look at the piracy rates for just the $1000+ Android devices, they won't be that much different than for the $1000+ iPhones.
We need to clarify the terms we use, then. I'm not "buying" a phone, I'm leasing one, with Apple being able to choose what I can and can't do on it.
The other day my car got an update that decided to not let sideloaded apps access the internet. The infotainment system went from amazing to useless in one tiny update, just because BYD doesn't want me to have useful apps. I can't even open my garage door without fumbling for my phone any more.
In an era where big tech commits copyright violations on a massive, automated scale to train their AI models, maybe it's time to rethink "piracy" as an offense? Why should only big corpos get to break copyright law?
I'm not sure about this. Piracy is rampant on Android. "Cracked" versions of Spotify which enable premium for unpaid users are very common. Given developers often prioritise iOS due to the fact users are more willing to pay opening the platform up to piracy could have wide ranging effects on the marketplace as a whole.