Alex Saunders, RIM’s VP of Developer Relations, doesn’t mince words, so it was no surprise when he tweeted out that the PlayBook would be losing the ability to sideload applications in its next update (or the one thereafter). The reason? To prevent, in his words, an Android-like “cesspool” from emerging in the PlayBook market, where piracy runs free and individuals gets used to not paying for apps.
It’s been repeatedly touted that one of the main reasons Android users don’t generally purchase apps is because they have such easy access to sideloaded, cracked apps that negate the need to delve into Google Play altogether. While this is an oversimplification — Google has done a fairly good job ensuring paid apps require a license, despite posing problems of their own — by virtue of being able to sideload apps at all makes piracy more accessible. iOS doesn’t have this problem, at least not without a jailbreak, and the BlackBerry platform has always been able to do this, though piracy never seemed to be too much of an issue. The QNX-based PlayBook OS is taking a more Apple-like approach, and as such will ensure users are obtaining apps legally from the App World.
Source: Alec Saunders (Twitter)
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