Apple removes I Am Rich, a $1,000 featureless iPhone application

News Type: Event — Seeded on Fri Aug 8, 2008 7:52 AM EDT

Article Source: The L.A. Times

technology

Seeded by Scott (Scoop) Butki

Wow, talk about a dumb move. What were they thinking?

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Scott (Scoop) Butki's Column, All of Newsvine
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Regions: Los Angeles

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2.6

{"commentId":2398657,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000.

When the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, those who paid the $499 entry price -- and signed the two-year AT&T contract -- owned a status symbol. A year later, we have the iPhone 3G, Apple Inc.'s speedier, sleeker and, most important, less expensive smart phone, which introduced a section for downloading third-party applications.

Now that the phone is affordable enough for a wider audience, a new status symbol has emerged: a seemingly useless application called I Am Rich.

Its function is exactly what the name implies: to alert people that you have money in the bank. I Am Rich was available for purchase from the phone's App Store for, get this, $999.99 -- the highest amount a developer can charge through the digital retailer, said Armin Heinrich, the program's developer.

{"commentId":2398657,"threadId":"328086","contentId":"1731252","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#1 - Fri Aug 8, 2008 7:55 AM EDT

{"commentId":2399480,"authorDomain":"writingathena"}

Writing Athena

Maybe they pulled "I Am Rich" so that they can replace it with "I Am a Buffoon"

{"commentId":2399480,"threadId":"328086","contentId":"1731252","authorDomain":"writingathena"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Fri Aug 8, 2008 9:58 AM EDT

{"commentId":2400089,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

Heh

{"commentId":2400089,"threadId":"328086","contentId":"1731252","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#1.2 - Fri Aug 8, 2008 11:00 AM EDT

{"commentId":2398853,"authorDomain":"zydor"}

Zydor

The real sad thing about this - apart from the obvious insanity of those who paid $1,000 each for a status symbol that only the most simpled mind Ostrich could believe in, is the underlying message behind doing it in the first place.

The "truly" rich don't - by in large - bother with such puerile symbols, they hardly have a need to. Its the number of those who like to pretend they are rich and are in love with this kind of Ostrich like symbol, that Apple's Marketing machine dug up in surveys; else they would not have done it in the first place.

That indicates a considerable number of people who actually believe that other people are impressed by such drivel, and that's the Really Sad Thing when you think about it ......

{"commentId":2398853,"threadId":"328086","contentId":"1731252","authorDomain":"zydor"}

1 vote

#2 - Fri Aug 8, 2008 8:36 AM EDT

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SCOTT (SCOOP) BUTKI

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Apple removes I Am Rich, a $1,000 featureless iPhone application

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