What shall we do with a drunken iPhone?

By Davey Winder
Saturday, 18 October 2008 15:44

Market

Could this be the most expensive pint of beer that never existed? If Molson Coors loses a court battle that is brewing over the iPhone iPint application, the virtual beer could cost as much as USD 12.5 million...

The iPhone App Store is well known for the number of novelty time-wasting applications that have proved so popular. One of the early novelty apps was a virtual pint of beer called, predictably enough, iBeer.

Developer Hottrix produced this virtual pint, making use of the iPhone accelerometer to simulate the filling and emptying of a glass of cool, foaming, beer. With the iPhone as the 'glass' you hold it up to your mouth and tip, and the glass magically empties.

Yes, it may well be foolish nonsense, but people were prepared to pay USD 2.99 for a beer they couldn't drink none-the-less. Until, that is, brewers Molson Coors jumped on the idea that a virtual pint on the iPhone would make great marketing material.

And so iPint was born, another tip it and drink it virtual pint for the iPhone. The difference being that unlike iBeer, iPint included a mini-game which involved tilting the handset to guide a beer along a bar and around obstacles.

Oh, and that this virtual pint was absolutely free. Global sales took off, and it has now been downloaded more than 6 million times around the world. Unsurprisingly, Hottrix were not too happy about this as it claims the release of iPint kickstarted a downwards trend in iBeer sales. Well really, knock me down with a feather!

A cease and desist letter claiming it copied the Hottrix application was enough for iPint to be removed from the US App Store, but it remains available in other territories.

Now Steve Sheraton, the man behind Hottrix, is suing Molson Coors for a sweet tasting USD 12.5 million in damages for lost earnings, claiming that iPint has "significantly impaired the downloading of the iBeer content".

The lawsuit states that the UK advertising agency representing Molson Coors approached Sheraton with a request to licence the iBeer software, but this request was turned down. The iPint application, created by Illusion Labs in Sweden on behalf of Molson Coors, appeared anyway.

Sheraton himself has already registered a US copyright claim on a video of a pint of beer being poured, I kid yet not. Meanwhile, a Molson Coors statement insists that is has "handled this matter appropriately" and is prepared to "vigorously defend the action."