Apple has been under a lot of pressure lately with official support for third-party stores on the iPhone. such legislation may come into force in European countries as early as next year.
The current situation with the removal of applications from the domestic App Store also does not bode well, and an alternative store would definitely not hurt us.
Let’s recall one successful project of an external store for iPhone, which appeared in the App Store.
Why Apple has been delayed with its own app store
In January of the distant 2007, within the framework of the conference Macworld Expo Steve Jobs presented a certain first smartphone to Apple. The device combined three gadgets: an iPod player, a phone for talking and an Internet communicator. The gadget became revolutionary and turned the industry upside down.
This event marked the end of an era for companies like Nokia and ROMEwhich could not adapt to the realities of the market, and gave rise to new developments and projects like android and Windows phone.
To the point: These 13 operating systems wanted to compete with iOS
New gadget with a bullseye Goes on sale June 29, 2007 and there were many hardware and software limitations compared to smartphones of the time.
Then there was a complete lack of external applications. It was not possible to download a program or a game; in the system itself, perception did not consider the possibility of installing additional software.
Users were willing to put up with the lack of (for the moment) high-speed 3G internet and shoot with a modest 2-megapixel camera without autofocus, flash, and video recording capabilities, but using a gadget with a set of 15 applications was extremely difficult.
Against the built-in app store Steve Jobs. At the presentation of the first smartphone, although he released the possibility of releasing external versions, he immediately said that this should be a web extension for applications. Safari.
The developers took this news without using resources, because in such cases it is impossible to create a truly functional and useful application for the iPhone. About game games with top-end graphics and there was no thought. Only 10-15 years later, web development technologies made it possible to release web applications that are not inferior in terms of the capabilities of full-fledged programs, with the connection of most smartphone modules.
In 2007 Jobs wanted to protect the iPhone from the outside world of software. Fortunately, after a few months, Steve’s opinion changed, and Cupertino began to restore the annoying flaw.
In autumn, the company introduced Enterprise SDKpromising to integrate the app store next year with no system upgrades.
With the performance of world leaders iPhone 1st generation. Add to this the complete absence of the presence of the iPhone OS in many languages and there is a lot of potential for creativity.
There is a demand – there will be an offer
Third-party manufacturers, realizing the scale of the problem, accumulated to fill an empty niche. Several groups of enthusiasts have purchased their unofficial app stores for apple smartphones.
Domestic programmers succeeded the most. A group of three enthusiasts in St. Petersburg quickly turned around and set to work.
Founded a small startup Alexander Kozyrev, who subsequently led the project and used it for organizational matters. The main part of the development was carried out by experienced programmers Vyacheslav Karpenko and Kirill Murzin. Previously, their portfolio counted several extensions to cover the system macOS. With such basic knowledge and skills, they set about mastering the new Apple operating system.
The first project was a touch keyboard for iPhone OS, which was created in just a few weeks after getting to know the gadget. The iPhone at that time was not officially sold in Russia and found the ability to penetrate, very often looking closely at the so-called “serovoz”.
The wallet began to be actively replenished with donations, and the mail was bombarded with all sorts of desires and requests for the development of the project. So the decision was made to release the first commercial packaging for the iPhone.
The guys quickly came up with a name for their startup and got to work. The first group of domestic associations for the platform iPhone OS began to speak RiP Dev(short for Russian iPhone Development).
Already in December 2007, a ready-made software assembly called Russian Project. It includes modified firmware files to replace the original data. Appearance set:
▶ Localization of all standard applications and specific iPhone menus.
▶ Ability to search for conflicts with Russian characters.
▶ Domestic keyboard with the ability to enter data, write SMS and use.
▶ Several additional fonts for the correct display of Cyrillic in all corners of the system.
▶ Carrier network logos.
▶ Settings of domestic operators for the operation of mobile 2G Internet.
▶ Caller ID with built-in basic area codes and carriers.
▶ Correction for the correct operation of the application Weather in Russia.
For such a solid set of tweaks, they asked for everything 500 rub. Storage fees for wallets PayPal, WebMoney and Yandex money. The start page of this project has been preserved in the web archive.
For wholesale buyers, a flexible system of discounts is everywhere, which has created a new business for the Russification of iPhones imported into the country. Vendors and enthusiasts from all over the country’s radio markets purchased the license en masse and filled the fee.
What else did domestic programmers do
One of the founders of the project Alexander Kozyrev development decided interaction in the international market. In early 2008, he moved to Switzerland, where he registered a company KMK Research. The abbreviation was formed from the first letter of the surnames RiP Dev (Karpenko, Murzin, Kozyrev).
Kozyrev was used to develop the project, and those remaining in Russia So for 2008 in the portfolio RiP Dev Several tweaks, add-ons and applications for the iPhone appeared.
Ice is a free package manager for jailbroken iPhones that uses a categorized catalog of add-ons. The utility was essentially a competitor to all groups Sidiawhich arose around the same time among Russian-speaking associations.
To the point: The Big iPhone Jailbreak Story
Hood is a tweak for the iPhone OS that added a windscreen with system switches and system key indicators. At the time of completion of the update is disabled WiFi, Bluetooth and EDGE. There were no other messages on the smartphone.
Katia – a set of additional settings and options for finer tuning of iPhone parameters.
i2 Reader Pro is a third-party e-book reader with support for several popular formats.
IPref – a client for a preference card game with connecting and searching for rivals on the network.
InstallerApp – the largest and most significant project of the team RiP Devwho became the harbinger of the coming App Store and officially recognized as the first third-party app store for the iPhone.
The team was replenished with other domestic programmers. Enthusiasts were attracted to the development, who were looking for iPhone OS vulnerabilities and had a hand in one of the first jailbreak utilities – PwnageTool.
Applications added RiP Dev The main developments were implemented at an affordable price and were a great success both in Russia and abroad. This is a meeting of a small group of programmers more than 1 million dollars only for 2008.
What caused the success of InstallerApp
The most important creation RiP Dev the game is useful Installer.application. With its help, it was possible to constantly replenish the catalog of external applications for the iPhone and get the programs and games you liked.
This opportunity appeared for the owners of the first generation iPhone six months before the presentation of the official App Store.
In the summer of 2009, Job corrected his past mistake by promising iPhone 3G governed by iPhone OS 2 with a separate app store. A great emphasis was placed on external developers, by the time the system was released, the App Store already had over 500 applicationsmarketers were pushing the new opportunity to the fullest.
The slogan of the time: There is an application for this..
Despite the appearance of an “official competitor” in the face of the App Store and the increasingly popular Sidia project installer continue to enjoy success with owners of apple smartphones.
The thing is that the catalog is filled not only with third-party utilities, but also with hacked applications that were sold in the official store. Domestic owners of the iPhone (as well as users of other countries without an official App Store) were deprived of the opportunity to pay for overseas software purchases for a long time.
In addition, this auxiliary application to untie the smartphone from overseas operations, the so-called “neverlock”, was a great success at that time.
I myself remembered how I got my first hacked iPhone at the radio market and immediately returned for a couple of my applications. It was Sidia to install small system tweaks and installer to install games and applications.
Only a few years later, it became possible to use an American Apple ID and purchase applications through the creation of a permanent QIWI card.
In this form, the external store installer successfully existed for two years, not finding any problems with the copyright holders and meeting Apple.
Internal problems ruined a promising project
Team Success RiP Dev was short-lived. The project was ruined not by factors or constraints, but by food problems and conflicts.
Between the trio of co-founders, a scandal began to flare up. accounts for financial matters, income and profit in the company. Developers Karpenko and Murzin for a long time did not delve into management issues and fully trusted foreign activities Kozyreva.
He, in turn, became obsessed with financial flows and managed to remove programmers from management decisions. In such an unhealthy situation, it is extremely difficult to lead a new development, pay a current account, and keep a team of programmers that has grown in a year.
Despite this, managed to keep the job installer 3x and 4x conversions that act on sample outliers to almost iOS 5. Later, a part was taken out to the team, and the main backbone would get bogged down in a series of ships and meet.
The trio of founders bombarded another friend with court cases both in Russia and abroad. Cases were initiated that threatened not only administrative liability, but also criminal liability. You can learn about all the hardships of time from one of the participants in the events.
Since 2012 RiP Dev practically did not work, and current projects stopped receiving updates and did not develop.
Only by 2020 did the parties to the conflict manage to settle the main disputes, leaving many smaller claims unresolved. This is how sadly and ingloriously ended the work of one of the first teams that were innovators in their niche and “finished” apple technology, damaging it more convenient for the end user.
Apple technology lovers who made those days still remember projects RiP Devespecially installerlong time replacing the official store App Store.
Source: Iphones RU
