Print this article  |  E-mail this article  |  Comment on this article

Apple pulls $1,000 App Store 'gem' after eight downloads

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

August 8, 2008, 12:10 PM

Armin Heinrich, the developer of the 'I Am Rich' application that sold for $999.99 and does essentially nothing, isn't sure why his submission was pulled from the App Store as it was done without warning.

Eight people are said to have downloaded the program, including six in the US, one in Germany and another in France during the day it was live. Using the App Store's revenue split, Heinrich would have made nearly $5,600 in revenues from an program that essentially does nothing.

Loading up the program simply does one thing: it displays a glowing gem on a black background. You could reportedly make some changes to the gem that appears but that was about it.

Apple initially approved the application on Tuesday, however pulled it on Thursday. Heinrich said that he wasn't informed of why I Am Rich was pulled, as Apple never contacted him. Similarly, the company was not speaking to the media on its reasoning either.

Questions abound as to why Apple would have even allowed the application through in the first place. The $999.99 fee is highest a developer can charge in the App Store, and Apple is believed to check every submission for various standards of quality.

It's obvious that the price far outpaced I Am Rich's functionality in this case.

A screenshot of a purported review that was circling the web may have contributed to Apple's actions. "This is not a joke. I need someone to help me with this scam," reviewer Lee5279xx writes. He tried to get the charge reversed after 'jokingly' purchasing the application, but "no one could get in touch with Armin Heinrich, or Apple to help me with this."

Obviously, I Am Rich is no joke.

Add a Comment (48 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Name (required):

E-mail (required):

Enter Your Comment:

By deltaman

edited Aug 10, 2008 - 9:38 AM

Armin appears to have a good instinct for "Target Marketing." Apple ought to find a place for him on the Team...

Score: 0

By alex_sporik

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 3:07 PM

Guys, its not a point who's more idiot.

Let's make applications for 999.99. :)))

This world is full of rich idiots who want little attention, or attract ladies, etc

I'm damn serious :))))))

Score: 0

By ScottHardy

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 1:52 PM

A sucker born every minute! It's great when people have so much money they'll spend it on anything. Even just something to PROVE they have money. Kinda sad actually.
Anyone want to corner this market and develop and flashing ball that says SUCKER and sell it for $500? Half the price, we'll get those that aren't SUPER rich, just moderately wealthy....

Thanks,
Scott Hardy
http://www.topclassactions.com

Score: 0

By kholdstare

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 11:07 AM

lol these eight people should be nominated for the next darwin award

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Aug 11, 2008 - 11:31 AM

Darwin awards (except one, as I recall) are generally awarded posthumously.

Sort of a "thank you" for removing themselves from our gene pool.

These eight people may indeed have more money than brains, but they have yet to do us all the favor of "joining the bleeding choir invisible."

Score: 0

By DatabaseBen

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 10:46 AM

well, if people want to give their money away, it should be their business or problem.

btw: anyone want to buy the statue of liberty for 1.00, just pay shipping and handling, 999.99.

Score: 0

By omV0

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 9:27 AM

Honestly, the guy is an idiot but apple should have some kind of a return policy.

Score: 0

By Aires

edited Aug 9, 2008 - 5:11 AM

Quite frankly I find this hysterical. If you buy an app for the iPhone @ £1k then you are the dumba55, not Apple. lmao

Score: 0

By mdotwills

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 3:32 AM

we should have a website named "itunesappstorenews.com" with all the crap about these apps in recent times...

Score: 0

By Ryusennin

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 8:26 PM

To Hell with those Mac sickos.

Score: 0

By Banquo

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 7:10 PM

Paying a grand to show a picture on your iPhone to prove to people you are rich...

This proves there's no shortage of stupid people in the world.

Score: 0

By artfuldodga

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 5:00 PM

The developer should in fact get his money if Apple doesn't pay up, this is one lawsuit waiting to happen, be nice to see how it plays out...

I'm also willing to bet as developers of an app, they forgo most of their rights to apple, anybody have any idea if that might be true?

Score: 0

By frankwick

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 4:15 PM

This somehow has to be Microsoft's fault. Right?

Score: 0

By Program86

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 4:26 PM

no, smartass... ITS THE dumba**'s FAULT WHO BUYS A 1000 DOLLAR APP.

Score: 0

By preinterpost

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 3:42 PM

Update: internetworld7 was one of the buyers (he owns every single iPhone app). He took up a credit from his mum and emailed Apple that he most definitely does not want a refund.

Score: 0

By DonGato

posted Aug 10, 2008 - 1:15 AM

I was wondering about that. :P

Score: 0

By improvelence

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 2:51 PM

Moral of the story is do not pay $999 for a cellphone app. I hope the guy gets stuck paying for it.

We live in a world of idiots.

Score: 0

By sjc001

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 3:06 PM

You should watch the movie Idiocracy. [smiles]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

Score: 0

By Scary Guy

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 5:33 PM

Agreed, everyone should watch this move IMO. This is the future of our society :(.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 12:54 PM

Dude, you do sound like the smartest guy in the world, but I think we're already there!!!

Score: 0

By cap737

posted Aug 11, 2008 - 4:02 PM

Excuse me, my favorite show, "Ow My Balls" is on.

Score: 0

By God Dammit

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 2:48 PM

From the article: "Armin Heinrich, the developer of the 'I Am Rich' application that sold for $999.99 and does essentially nothing, isn't sure why his submission was pulled from the App Store as it was done without warning."

If this guy can't figure it out he must be a brain dead moron.

Score: 0

By sjc001

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 3:07 PM

Not nearly as much as those who actually bought it....

Score: 0

By forgie

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 2:05 PM

Remember this is Apple we're dealing with. Apple knows what is best for you, whether you already know it or not. You can't really be surprised if they do decide to screen the application submissions and only allow the ones they see value in. However, with that said, I believe they owe this guy $5,600 and he should take them to court if they don't pay up. This reminds me of the infamous selling of the empty game console box on Ebay and how many people get taken by that, legally.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 3:26 PM

XboX Box ahoy!

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 1:21 PM

It's obvious that the price far outpaced I Am Rich's functionality in this case.

So does a Lotus, or a Mustang, but that doesn't stop people from buying them, and is *no* reason to pull an app. It functioned as intended and was not at all obscure or vague as to it's abilities.

That said...

It was advertising for his other apps. Nothing more.

He had a link to his other apps (much lower pirced, of course) and never actually expected anyone to buy it.

Funny that, just proves the old saying, "a Fool and his money are soon parted."

The fact Apple pulled it makes me laugh. We knew they would. I echo the sentiments of some below in wishing I had thought of it as well.

What could be better? Make 5+ grand off of a few idiots *and* make Apple look like "the Evil Overlord"...all for a few seconds of coding?

It's a beautiful thing...

As to the reviewer... Poor thang. Perhaps he should have mommy take care of his finances from now on...since he *obviously* cannot?

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 3:31 PM

"So does a Lotus, or a Mustang, but that doesn't stop people from buying them, and is *no* reason to pull an app. It functioned as intended and was not at all obscure or vague as to it's abilities."

Bad example.

Those cars costs approximately half the list price to build. This app cost next to nothing.

*Edit* Except in the case of the Bugatti Veyron, which cost £8,000,000 to build each, but sell for £800,000 (yes, that's £7.2 million lost on each car - it was done as an example of VWs (they own Bugatti) power and might and not for a profit).

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Aug 11, 2008 - 11:26 AM

Technically, since it's an app, it *did* cost nothing.

None of them "cost" anything to make.

Of course, if you buy into the whole "my time is worth money" game, then you have to allow them to tell *you* what that time was worth.

Apparently, his time was worth $999.99 while he wrote that. :)

You totally missed the point to argue semantics.

Score: 0

By kbuntu

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 12:56 PM

How come Apple didn't review this app in the first place? And why would the guy be clicking on an Item as a joke? I guess the joke was on him.

Regardless, Apple should screen every app of it's usefulness in order to offer a more productive and fun device.

Cheap iPhones at http://www.iphonevortex.com

Score: 0

By dvferret

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 5:13 PM

Sounds like a fair app to me. Apple shouldn't be able to do because its not a scam or anything. You knew what the app did before you bought it. Therefor it is your fault for buying it!

Score: 0

By DotNet_Coder

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 1:55 PM

Ok, seriously... Who is supposed to determine the "usefulness" of an application? As a developer I have tons of apps that would be deemed useless to someone who is not a developer. In that case, should all of the apps that I rely on daily be screened by someone else?

If someone is stupid enough to buy an app for any amount of money that essentially does nothing, the blame is on them for not doing their own screening...

Let's not shoot the propietor for selling the product... (well, wait, it IS Apple... let's shoot them just on general principal... ;-) )

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 1:10 PM

I believe Apple should be checking for inappropriate material and malicious software. If somebody is dumb enough to pay $999.99 for an application that does nothing, then let them.

Score: 0

By eunichman

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 4:27 PM

I agree, and since this piece of software is neither malicious nor does it contain "inappropriate content" then you need to find a better arguement to support your idiocy of paying way too much for nothing...

Let me tell you a story, a true story... in the days long ago, before the widespread use and availability of the internet, there were computer communities called "BBS's" or Bulletin board services. On these you could chat live with others from far away places, you could play online games, post messages, read news and download files (wow.. sounds a LOT like the internet in many ways).. anyway, I used to operate one of these services... for a nominal fee (dirt cheap for that time period) of $9.99 a month, you could access my "4 node" bbs (4 incoming lines)...I had 1 (ONE) subscriber in 6 months... I changed nothing other than the price, i jacked it up to $19.99 per month (now equivalent to what all the other BBSes in the area were charging) and within the 1st day, got 10 new subscribers... fast forward 6 more months and I raised the price for the exact same service up to 59.99 a month - to assist in upgrading the bbs with more lines (hey, 4 incoming teleco lines aint cheap) as well as to upgrade the hardware to provide more content to users... within the 1st hour I got 200 new subscribers, and in that 1st week I landed close to 1000 more...

Eventually, months down the road (we are talking about a time when 16 meg of ram cost $200 per stick) i did the upgrade and offered new subscribers a special offer of $80 per month, or discounted price of $460 payable in one lump sum for 6 months uninterrupted access, never really got around to offering more content other than 5 new online games.

Well, lets say I am still now living off the revenues I made from that service, nearly 25 years ago now. People think that if an item costs more it is worth more. you can have identical products one for 99 cents and one for 99 dollars and the ppl will more often than not buy the 99 dollar product over the 99 cent one.

You cannot blame the sellers (or developer in this case) for people being morons, all you can do is say he found the one common human weakness that is in most of us - and exploited that weakness. No crime against that, not in this world :)

Score: 0

By unistyle

edited Aug 9, 2008 - 2:19 PM

restaurants do this all the time.. you can't under price an item because people will think it is cheap and not as good.. if you are selling creme brulee for $4 it might sell poorly cause it is cheaper than what people expect to pay. raise the price to $11.95 and all of a sudden it is selling like crazy because people think it's quality.

Score: 0

By Kaibelf

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 12:58 PM

I don't think it's apple's place to decide if an application is "useful" enough. That's opening the door to bloatware. I want mini apps that do ONE thing well, not something that does 100 things horribly.

Score: 0

By Kaibelf

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 12:56 PM

I have to say I'm really REALLY put off by this whole thing. IMHO people have every right to spend inordinate amounts of money on anything they want without someone's approval as long as it's theirs to spend.

This app didn't lie about what it did. It was solely an expensive prop to show to your friends, so that they could say "Wow, i wish I had money to burn like you." Honestly, most people were saying that about the $500 bucks I dropped on their phone, and apple certainly wasn't policing my wallet then.

I think the REAL problem here is Apple's refusal to explain their reasons to their developers. I'm mad as hell about them pulling Boxoffice, one of the REALLY useful apps, and not giving us ANY explanation as to why, nor even telling the guy who designed it. From what I understand he bent over backwards to make sure it didn't violate any kinds of copyright issues, so what's with the stonewalling?

Score: 0

By ctrl_vomit

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 12:43 PM

"Apple initially approved the application"

I can see why. Apple must have felt sentimental.

After all, that's exactly what Apple does: Sell high priced shiny stuff that's turns out to be useless.

I just couldn't resist that one. But seriously, Apple has a pretty lax approval process to let that slip through. It should have stood out like a sore thumb at that price. Keep up the great job Apple.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 12:37 PM

The guy that bought it as a mistake is a ****ing moron and deserves to have $999.99 taken away from him.

In my opinion there's nothing wrong with this app and it should still be up for sale.

If people want to show off their wealth by buying it then fine, and they can expect to be robbed soon enough.

I just wish I'd thought of doing it.

Score: 0

By dvferret

posted Aug 9, 2008 - 5:14 PM

100% Agreed!

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 1:12 PM

"I just wish I'd thought of doing it."

Haha. Agreed.

Score: 0

By artfuldodga

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 12:30 PM

Hey if you're retarded enough to buy an app for $999, thats a personal problem... er choice

But as apple has said in the past, it controls what apps are approved and what app's are toast, and again to all you apple lovin mo-fo's, nice job buying into a locked up system, thats the right direction for technology and content... thumbs up to you guys

Score: 0

By CyberNigma

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 12:24 PM

The guy that accidentally bought the app is a joke. I can see a market for it just like a gold or gem encrusted iphone. As someone mentioned on another forum, a person with loads of money may (and did in fact) buy this just for epeen effect, much like people sink cash into microtransaction games or buy special edition items. They do it because they can and it sets them apart from others that can't.

I don't have that kind of cash, but the copyrighted image (I believe he created it himself) and controlled distribution meant that if someone has that on their phone, they really paid stupid for it. It also meant someone couldn't just copy it, so there was a method of telling if it was legit or not (assuming the phone wasn't hacked). I see no scam. It said on the description it did not do anything. It merely let people know you have money to spend - just like a myriad of other things (such as the SuperBee recently released).

Score: 0

By artfuldodga

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 12:28 PM

Well, its like the guy was trying to convey abuse by the app, somehow. He clicked the freakin buy button!

Score: 0

By Kaibelf

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 12:59 PM

Remember, in addition to clicking buy, he ALSO had to actively put in his password. It's not like he tripped on the carpet and his finger hit the mouse on accident.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 1:14 PM

Did he, or was it like the Amazon 'one click' setup, where if you're already logged in you can just click once?

/hasn't bought anything through iTunes and never will

Score: 0

By improvelence

edited Aug 8, 2008 - 2:56 PM

"/hasn't bought anything through iTunes and never will "

/doesnt care

The iTunes music store is the only one that's worth a damn, I've tried many of them. Apples customer support puts Amazon's to shame. Apple also has the easiest to manage DRM scheme whereas I am not going to get locked out of playing my Audio or Video, something which has happened to me with Cinemanow due to their restrictive licensing scheme. Itunes also sells DRM free music at a very nice price. Dont knock it till you've tried it buddy.

Score: 0

By terminalx

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 7:47 PM

Amazon sells it cheaper (in most cases) and all tracks are DRM free, you are not required to install any apps except a small download application.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Aug 8, 2008 - 4:58 PM

I'm not knocking the store, I just won't ever install the monstrosity that is the iTunes software.

Amazon is DRM free. Can't argue with that.
I wasn't arguing anything anyway; I was asking if it has a one-click method of purchasing if you're already logged in.

Score: 0

Dec 2 - 5:09 PM ET Microsoft: Vista SP2, Windows Server SP2 betas Thursday

Dec 2 - 4:55 PM ET With premium content, monetization will follow, says YouTube exec

Dec 2 - 3:59 PM ET Europol plan against cyber-crime would enable remote searches

Dec 2 - 2:22 PM ET Roaming SMS charges to decrease in Europe

Dec 2 - 1:41 PM ET Oracle contributes Linux code for detecting 'silent data corruption'

Dec 2 - 1:31 PM ET Sling.com launches its joust with Joost

Dec 2 - 1:27 PM ET Nokia closes its Symbian acquisition, seeding an open source foundation

Dec 2 - 11:44 AM ET Another confusing split decision in Broadcom / Qualcomm spat

Dec 2 - 11:02 AM ET Africa is springing into fertile ground for WiMAX

Dec 2 - 10:08 AM ET Nokia goes full-tilt in unveiling its N97