Tapjoy takes their ball home and starts an Android porting fund

If you recall, a couple of month ago Apple cracked down heavily on developers and applications that were incentivizing installations of applications. Long story short, paying people either in real money or fake money to install other applications in an attempt to climb up the App Store rankings, amongst other things, was outlawed, and outlawed hard.

Tapjoy was hit pretty hard by the move. No longer would Apple approve applications, like theirs, that would offer users in-app credits for the app in exchange for downloading another app. In one fell swoop Apple eliminated their business model.

So, instead of finding a new, less sketchy, business model, Tapjoy has decided to pull the plug on Apple App Store development, and instead, offered up a $5 million dollar fund to help developers port their existing applications from iOS to Android. While the incentive-to-install model is down right disgusting, this fund is a great idea.

I know, right. I write for an Apple website, and I’m encouraging people to develop for Android. Listen, my philosophy is pretty simple. Great applications should be available to everyone, despite personal preferences for App Stores, phone models, and companies.

Hopefully some good will come out of this new fund, despite being fueled by spite — because let’s face it, the new Android Fund is entirely fueled by spite.

Article Via ReadWriteWeb