iPhone pimping for filthy rich nutters

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 06 August 2008 19:23

Your IT - Mobility

Having confirmed that it was not April 1st, and assured that this was no prank, there can only be one conclusion to be drawn from the appearance of the 'I Am Rich' application at the App Store: someone thinks that iPhone users are a bunch of filthy rich nutters...

Anyone who has churned their way through the many pages of paid for applications available for the iPhone via the Apple iTunes App Store will have to agree that some are overpriced. Although in the vast majority of such cases you are only being ripped off to the tune of a few dollars.

Some applications are ridiculously overpriced, however.

Applications such as the very aptly named 'I Am Rich' one which costs a suitably well-heeled and deep-pocketed USD $999.

What do you get by paying out more than you did for your iPhone 3G handset in the first place? You get a ruby red gemstone image, giving off a ruby red glow on the iPhone screen, and one has to assume a ruby red face considering what a twit you have been in wasting your money on this rubbish.

Of course, I suspect that is the whole point. Someone is chancing their arm and betting that one or two people will have more money than sense and splash the cash on this nonsense. If they do, then the developer can pocket the money safe in the knowledge that the App Store 'all sales are final' no refunds policy applies.

Which is where my problems start with what some might see as a rather pointless, indeed even harmless, bit of fun. After all if you are daft enough to spend that kind of money on this kind of tat, then you deserve everything you get. Right?

The trouble is, the way the App Store works, Apple has to approve the applications that appear on its virtual shelves. You cannot just create something and throw it up there. Apple cannot claim "oh we didn't realise it was a rip-off, we'll remove it now" at some later date.

Not that I imagine Apple will.

After all, it gets a 30 percent slice of any idiot money spent. Perhaps that was why 'I Am Rich' got approval in the first place, who knows?

Armin Heinrich, the application developer, is perhaps unsurprisingly keeping rather quiet as the sh*tstorm hits. All we have to get a feel of where he is coming from is the App Store description:
 
"It's a work of art with no hidden function at all."