At least eight people have a blinged-out iPhone, but they may be the only ones.
Apple has removed the “I Am Rich” application from its App Store. The program cost $999 and its sole purpose is to show people the owner has money. The program creates a red icon that sits on the iPhone deck with a the words “I Am Rich” underneath. After the user activates the application, it glows on the handset like a ruby.
Apple initially approved the application, which bumps up against the pricing limit for applications sold on its App Store. The company was not immediately available for comment on why it decided to pull the plug on the application.
Six people from the U.S., one from Germany, and another from France are sporting red-gemmed iPhones, according to developer Armin Heinrich. Heinrich claims the gem includes a “secret mantra.”
“The application really does nothing. It’s about teaching you, in theory, how to become rich through a mantra of some sort. It really was a functionless, useless application that served no one other than the developer. Unsuspecting people bought it for $1,000 maybe hoping to get something in return,” asserted Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Easy To Purchase
Gartenberg doesn’t think many people would spend $1,000 on an application for the iPhone anyway, but there were some complaints that it was easy to purchase it by mistake through the App Store’s one-click system. At least one App Store visitor thought the “I Am Rich” application was merely a joke and clicked on the “Buy App” button for a surprise.
“Apple has said from day one that it was going to, in some sense, police the App Store in terms of questionable content that might be violating other people’s content and trademarks and services,” Gartenberg said. “In this case, this was an application that was designed to make the application developer rich.”
The fact that Apple is maintaining some scrutiny over these types of applications, what some might go so far as to call scams, could be to the long-term benefit of App Store customers, Gartenberg said. He doubts any mainstream Apple customer is going to be concerned that they can no longer buy this application.
“It’s Apple’s store. Like any merchant, they have the right to decide what products they are going to put on their shelves, particularly products that may be harmful or offensive to customers or that may be violating piracy or trademark laws,” Gartenberg said.
Expanding the iPhone
The App Store’s applications are intended to expand the iPhone’s software features and make the experience more personal. Nearly 1,000 applications are available, with more than 200 offered free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.
Developers have created a wide array of mobile applications ranging from games to location-based social networking to medical applications to enterprise productivity tools. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto an iPhone or iPod touch and start using them immediately.