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How mainstream is Cydia?

By Matt Radford on January 9, 2009

Here’s something I found a bit curious. Cydia is the unofficial twin of the App Store, where users with jailbroken phones can go to get software. Since the App Store debuted, several applications have made the transition away from it – unofficial apps have become official and available for download on the App Store. It’s also the case that some apps, e.g. PDANet and Podcaster, have appeared on Cydia following rejection from the App Store by Apple. But I haven’t seen this before.

TextGuru is featured under Cydia’s Featured Packages section as a sponsor. The funny thing is, TextGuru is a text editor that’s available on the App Store. It makes me wonder how popular Cydia (and by definition, jailbreaking) is when an official app takes the step of advertising on an unofficial channel. There are no metrics available, but one popular app (dTunes) has reached a million downloads.

Perhaps TextGuru are just exploring all the possibilities to show off their app, seeing as it’s quite difficult to get your application noticed amongst the clutter of the App Store.

I wonder what Apple will think?

  • Leon

    Cydia is mainstream in the sense that everyone who isn’t with the legitimate iPhone carrier for their country has to have it, and is therefore exposed to its advantages.

    On the other hand many people I know who have a genuine o2 contract iPhone here in the uk don’t jailbreak, in part because they don’t NEED to and in part due to scaremongering by staff at the o2 shops. I’ve heard all sorts of nonsense about jailbreaking stopping features such as data roaming working properly. Even when I purchased a pay as you go handset last week to replace my scuffed and battered 3g I was told not to jailbreak as it would invalidate my warranty.

    I pointed out that the only scenario by which I couldn’t simply restore my phone with iTunes and un-invalidate my warranty would be if I smashed the screen to smithereens or dropped it in a pond. Either way my warranty would have gone up in smoke anyway.

    Since the release of Yellowsn0w I’m Cydia’s biggest fan. My unlocking chip now lies in a scrap heap somewhere.

  • http://www.topsoftware.co.za/Itunes-software.html Itunes Man

    “Perhaps TextGuru are just exploring all the possibilities to show off their app, seeing as it’s quite difficult to get your application noticed amongst the clutter of the App Store.” – This has changes substantially since your last post.