Flurry To Stop Tracking Device Info, Source Of Early Info On Apple Devices Disappears

Other than hapless and drunk Apple engineers leaving products on bar stools for other patrons to find, often the place we first spy info on new and upcoming Apple products and software updates is through analytics firms like Flurry. Flurry specifically is often one of the first sources that can point to new versions of iPhone software and devices being used.

The problem in Apple's view is that the Flurry service, which gets developers to put tracking code into their software and apps to determine what device is accessing pages and how popular apps are, is that often the devices discovered are secret and being used from the Apple campus. This fact is "pissing us off" in Steve Jobs' words and Steve and Apple have put out an ultimatum to Flurry and other companies like them.

The word is that Apple will only allow analytics that don't capture device info and are only allowed for advertising. Flurry told Gigaom that it was in the process of changing this before Jobs called Flurry out by name via a new Privacy First Initiative. I find this hard to believe since arguably the most important aspect of Flurry's services to non-developers was the tip of early software and device updates. Once that feature is gone, how much value will Flurry have left for most of us?