It seems everybody is jumping on the mobile-store bandwagon these days, although that"s certainly not a bad thing. The latest store coming to Apple"s mobile devices is created by Jay Freeman, the man behind Cydia, the popular iPhone and iPod touch software distribution method.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the news, as well as various other sources, and as you can imagine, the store will feature content that Apple wouldn"t approve of. The store will feature paid content (it wouldn"t really be a store without it), and should prove very popular with iPhone developers who have a great application, but it wouldn"t get Apple approval.
Freeman has said that he decided to create the store to help out others like himself to make money from their hard work. This has me a bit concerned, though; those who love Cydia do so because of the free content that truly brings new functionality to the iPhone and iPod touch... does this new possibility mean that everybody will begin to charge for their work? This certainly isn"t a bad thing, of course. Some of the developers for Cydia"s software do truly deserve support, and I"m sure many people will pay for it (look how popular fart applications are on the App Store), but how much will they pay. Time will certainly tell.
How much time, though? Not much; the Cydia store is expected to be released very soon. It should also be noted that Freeman will charge developers "no more" than what Apple charges its own developers to host software.
Please note that Neowin.net does not in any way endorse jailbreaking of your iPhone or iPod touch, and Apple has deemed modification of your device"s firmware illegal, as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.