A controversial new online store called Cydia Store opened late last week offers unauthorized apps for jailbroken iPhones.  Apple launched its popular online store back in July, and it has become wildly popular.

Cydia is the name of an installer that has been available for a while and in use by some 1.7 million iPhones. That’s according to its creator, Jay Freeman, who has now decided to go one step further and open an online store based around its use and completely separate from the real iPhone App Store.

The store’s app obviously requires a jailbroken iPhone to use. It’s a somewhat tricky (and possibly illegal, depending on whether you listen to Apple) step that might put off many casual users.

So far, Amazon Payments is the only funding source for the moment, but PayPal is on the way, due to popular demand.

Have you bought the first ever Cydia Store app?

[via Geek]