8 People Buy "I Am Rich" iPhone App For $1,000 684
FsG writes "In the first 24 hours that it was available, eight people bought a completely useless iPhone app for $1,000 a pop. This app does nothing except alert onlookers that you have a lot of money. The developer priced it at $999.99, which is the most you can charge on Apple's store. Apple has since yanked the app (without explanation as usual), while the inventive programmer walked away with $5,600."
Because (Score:5, Informative)
Conspicuous Consumption [wikipedia.org]
Re:Because (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Reason why? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/07/poor_man_buys_i_am_rich_app/ [theregister.co.uk]
Re:Well, you gotta hand it to the guy... (Score:3, Informative)
You have to click the install button twice - once to change it from the price to "install", once to actually install, then you have to enter your password if you haven't entered it recently enough into the store app. That's 3 steps.
If people want to buy the app, let them. That's their choice. But you can't do it by mistake.
(And free apps require multiple steps too).
Re:Because (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Reason why? (Score:3, Informative)
>Most brick and mortar stores will do this for you.
Name one that will do this with software that you tried.
Not that I'm arguing against your concept - I think it's good, if perhaps too long. But there aren't any other *similar* examples in the world of software and big box retailers.
Re:Reason why? (Score:3, Informative)
50 Cent is a great example...in addition to his "gold plated house" and other high-priced tchotchkes, he had the foresight to buy a 10% stake in Glaceau [wikipedia.org]. When Coca-Cola bought it out, he netted a cool $400 million [associatedcontent.com].
Re:Reason why? (Score:3, Informative)
Fry's will do it for you.
I've purchased software there a couple of times and returned it within a couple of days and got my money back. Once because after I got home I discovered the software won't run at all on the 64-bit version of XP, another was a game that I thought was an RPG but wasn't. Both times, entirely my fault (arguably, with the game - the box grossly misrepresented itself) but they still refunded the purchase when I returned the items.