[undertow]

Honestly, it's not particularly difficult to copy programs from the app store. With a jailbroken phone, you can just grab an app off the phone's file system.

I think the real difference is the constant, relentless change in platforms presented to mobile phone consumers. Every year, it's a new phone, a major operating system upgrade, or something else disrupting the ecosystem, so that no out-of-band trade in raw files can take root.

When you have a zombie fanbase chasing the latest glitter, and disruptive changes introduced every six months, it's tough to gain traction when you have expend so much energy just to keep up with the herd.

[luckman212]

Not to mention that in that era, titles were often US$39, $49 (or more) and in today's dollars that would be much higher. Compare to most apps on the app store that are typically $4.99 or less... certainly makes paying for titles a lot more palatable for the would-be pirate.

[beagle3]

... and that today's $4.99 is actually something like $1-$2 in 80's dollars.

[PhasmaFelis]

There's also the fact that you have to jailbreak it first, which is going to be scary and difficult for many (most) users.

When DRM was only enforced by the software, you just patched over the software and were good to go. Now that it's enforced by the operating system, it no longer appears so simple to the average user.