Companies working within Apple's distortion field are well versed in the art of defending their business when the platform holder decides to change the rules – just ask the likes of  OpenFeint, Scoreloop, Flurry, Tapjoy et al.

So on the back of news that the Apple is to deprecate its UDID system for iOS 5, app discovery specialist Appsfire has announced it is to offer developers an alternative

Mass-debate

"To serve the community in a way that is both accessible and non-proprietary, Appsfire is introducing the open source OpenUDID initiative, hereby inviting all stakeholders to this much needed debate," said co-founder Yann Lechelle on the firm's blog.

"As Appsfire is both a developer of consumer apps and an ad network, we sought a UDID replacement but were not interested in a solution owned by any single provider. To help ourselves and thousands of other mobile app developers, we began working on the OpenUDID open source initiative."

Lechelle claims the new initiative has been designed to provide a reliable proxy and replacement for the UDID system that is "persistent and sufficiently unique, on a per device basis".

Open source, not OpenFeint

The open source option, which is also in development for Android, is the second such solution to arise following Apple's announcement, following OpenFeint's plans to streamline its own sign-in process to provide a replacement service.

Appsfire's arguable advantage, however, is it won't require developers to adopt any specific network.

"All mobile app developers are invited to join this initiative and use the code to replace their current call to the soon-to-be deprecated function," adds Lechelle.

"The immediate benefit is that the new method will retain the current UDID for all existing installs, ensuring a smooth transition for when Apple pulls the plug. When that happens, users with no prior UDID will be granted fresh OpenUDIDs, transparently."

The OpenUDID code can be found on Appsfire's website.