Ripdev - Popular Jailbreak Software Developer Shuts Down

Ripdev, one of the earliest names in the iPhone jailbreaking community, the company that is associated with the development of Installer, which is arguably the first iPhone app store, much before Apple's official iPhone App Store came about and before Cydia took over as the leading jailbreak app store has now called it quits. 

In a message posted on their website, the Ripdev team writes

"It's been a great two years, but unfortunately, the time has come for Ripdev to close its doors. There are many reasons for this, most of which we probably will never disclose (unless we are forced to). The important thing is that due to circumstances we will likely be unable to support the titles we have created over the years further."

The company has also assured its customers that while support and new upgrades shall no longer be made available, their repository on Cydia shall continue to exist till next year for the existing customers. One of their products Icy has been open sourced to enable future development. 

While at the outset, the reason for their closure is not clear, folks at the 'iPhone in Canada' website have discovered the real reasons behind the unexpected shutdown tucked away in the page source of the Ripdev website

"Here's a bit of advise: don't blindly trust your business partners - one day it may turn out that they will steal a year's worth income of the company and create another one, leaving you without possibility to control what you have been creating for several years."

This has been a rather unfortunate end to a company that is well known for not only the Installer iPhone apps store, but also other iPhone software like Kate and Icy. However, Ripdev has not had a smooth journey through the past two years. Their software have always been notorious for crashing iPhones and probably that led to Cydia taking over Installer as the leading app store for jailbroken iPhones. 

Nevertheless, Ripdev has played a very valuable role in shaping the jailbroken community to what it is today and we believe they shall be sorely missed. How have your experiences been with Ripdev? Please do tell us in the comments. 

[via ModMyI, iPhone in Canada]

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