Industry Update is contributed by our friend and gaming junkie Alexander Liss

This week the gaming blogosphere was rocked with multiple reports of skyrocketing piracy on the iPhone. Given Apple’s long and successful history with digital distribution, the last thing you expect to hear is that their system is apparently hackable.

It’s yet another roadblock for indie develpoers using the App store as a viable distribution platform. For a while now the iPhone sales charts have been dominated by big titles like Rock Band, Madden and Need for Speed. Now you throw piracy into the mix and things get even dicier for “the little guy.”

For the iPhone — seems like unprecedented growth comes with a price. Piracy has been a huge problem for both the PSP and DS. Now that Apple has proved the iPhone a legitimate handheld gaming platform, will they be stuck with the same baggage?

The blowback from this is going to add to the growing fear factor of Apple. Considering by most accounts their approval policies are completely borked, then consider what measures they might put in place to prevent piracy, the equation gets even more unpredictable.