8 idiots bought the $1000 image
The LA Times blog is reporting that the infamous, limited edition "I am Rich" application was purchased by six Americans, one Frenchman and one German. That's right. These guys gave the developer, Armin Heinrich, a total of $5,600 dollars and Apple $2,400 for what effectively is a 320x480 pixel Photoshopped picture of a jewel.
Is it Art?...
We could bring up the discussion of whether this is a study in exclusivity in the digital world and a harbinger of things to come...however, it is just too stupid to to put it through scrutiny. It really is too bad that giving $1000 to the WWF or a charity doesn't give people that same kind of buzz and recognition.
According to the LA Times:
Apple apparently had some problems with "I Am Rich". After initially approving it for distribution, the company has since removed it from the store. Heinrich, a German software developer, has yet to hear back from Apple concerning the removal. "I have no idea why they did it and am not aware of any violation of the rules to sell software on the App Store," Heinrich said in an e-mail with The Times today.
In the e-mail, Heinrich said there seemed to be a market for the program. "I am sure a lot more people would like to buy it -- but currently can't do so," Heinrich said. "The App is a work of Art and included a 'secret mantra' -- that's all."
Ugh..Any opinions on this out there? Is this the begining of something bigger? Does the fact that it is digital and a 100% exact replica can be made easily and copied millions of times for no cost mean it really isn't that valuable? Like music and video?
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Comments (38)
Ah, but it's 320x480 not 240x320!
right...when you put it that way it is worth the $1000 :P ...corrected! thanks
... with money?
... with a big cc bill?
... with an ego bigger than their brain?
F*UCK them!!! who buys something through the store for $999.99, even if they were just f*cking around!!!
They actually deserve to pay more... because they are idiots...
Does anyone else look at this and think "I wish i thought of it first!!!"
Yeah, even though it is stupid, it's still interesting. I have a friend who has over 34 MILLION dollars in a bank account because his father owned the company Conseco but then died (got his head cut off by the company helicopter) and I really can see him getting this because he has so much money. And seeing this, whoever did buy this is now famous!
What I find hard to believe is that someone at Apple actually approved this application for deployment.
I understand people think that this is ridiculous, and outrageous, but is it any more stupid than a $1,000,000 mansion or car, or by that matter, a $600 phone? It's simply something that some people are willing to buy and others aren't. These apps aren't fake, the description clearly said it HAD NO FUNCTION. I don't understand why people were talking about it being a scam. It's just as useless as a real jewel of that price, and if I were able to afford it, I would absolutely buy this. I'm sorry to the person who wrote the review after accidentally buying, but that kind of stuff happens on the internet. It's not Apple's fault, they allow the developers to charge what they want, and it's not the developer's fault, he created a product and placed it for sale. Basic supply and demand, if people are willing to buy, sell! and obviously, there were people willing to pay. Don't like it, don't buy it.
Where's the difference to gold plated phones and other obcenely expensive luxury goods? I'm actually surprised that not more people bought this just because they can.
Somebody needs to release an "I Am Poor" app that does the same exact thing this one does, except it is blue instead of red, and is available for free on the App Store. If you can change the color of the image that would be even better, as then you could set it to red. Ha....
This app is exactly what the App Store is all about. It's Apple's way of giving developers a platform from which to make money. Nobody starts a business to NOT make money, so the more they make the better, right? This app couldn't have taken more than a few minutes to put together, yet it's already providing (substantial)income to it's creater, Armin Heinrich.
Besides the respectable business genius of the idea, it also acts as a commentary on the entire phenomenon of Apple and, in particular, the iPhone/iPod ecosystem. They're comparatively expensive products that are bought as status symbols and thusly classify as luxury items. That makes the App Store a luxury items delivery platform , somewhere an application like "I am Rich" is in its element.
So let him sell it! If you can put up with people walking around with D&G or Gucci splashed all over their clothes, you can put up with this.
Proof positive that Americans are dumber than the rest of the world. 6? Six of them managed to buy this? Oh dear.
what does nationality have to do with it? simple subtraction tells us that leaves 301,139,941 americans who did not buy it. there's an idiot here, alright, but you might try looking a lot closer to home.
"Proof positive that Americans are dumber than the rest of the world. 6? Six of them managed to buy this? Oh dear."
Or richer. But what do I know, I'm just a dumb american.
There are more people and iPhones in the United States than in other countries of the world, so therefore one would expect more people from the United States would buy it. Literally speaking there are more idiots in the USA than in other countries, but that doesn't mean there's a greater percentage
I think it's a great app. It's a moron detector. It identifies those amongst the general population who have more money than sense and display a spectacular level of idiocy. If Apple could continue to allow this app, we could then collect a list of the names on it, relieve them of their money since they don't know what to do with it, give it to charity then stick them all on a little island somewhere and leave them there. Then, the rest of us can get on with our lives safe in the knowledge that there'll be less chance we run into some vacuous moron when going about our daily lives.
I don't understand why you set this app in such a bad light. It does nothing harmful, it clearly says that it does nothing, everyone is free to (not) buy it - why do you flame it this hard?
Come on, you can't deny that the idea is great. As someone pointed out, it's a moron detector, but then again, why should the developer not take advantage of this fact and make money of these morons? There's also a good reason why Gucci sells handbags for 20k $, they too take advantage of these morons. Yet you don't flame them.
Gucci sell $20k handbags because they can sell their name and exclusivity.
OTOH this graphic can be replicated simply by copying it from the web page. It's not a remotely limited quantity... there are potentially infinite numbers of them. That means it's worth (almost) nothing.
There are plenty of Gucci replicas out there - does that mean that the originals are worth (almost) nothing. And, as is written in the article, there are plenty of copies of music/movies out there, does that mean that the originals of those are worth (almost) nothing.
I don't see why people are getting so worked up about this - it was a great idea and I wish I had come up with it. The people who did buy it are either idiots (the guy in the article) or so rich that they could without even denting their bank balance and wanted something exclusive.
Movies cost millions to make. Copies are charged for to get the money back - each individual copy *is* worth almost nothing my itself (again, it's potentially an infinite resource so has no intrinsic value, which is why we need copyright laws to artifically restrict supply) but people pay to support the film maker so they make more of them. That's the system working.
Equally if someone produces a film and it's total crap then they lose their money. That's the system working too.
A graphic costs nothing to make, nothing to duplicate. Theres's absolutely zero effort gone into the application at all. It has no perceived or real value. Its purpose was to generate a bit of press and take advantage of the one click to catch a few idiots buying it.
Of course apple now have to go through the hassle of refunding everyone, so it's cost them money... I bet they'll be more careful in future.
I can see apple being more careful vetting future apps to avoid turning the appstore into a joke but I can't see what case they would have to refund the money to the ppl who bought this app.
I really wanted one of those "I am rich" icons on my phone so I could show it off to everyone I know. But only eight lucky people got to buy them. I wonder if they would sell one to me now. I'd gladly pay $1999.99 since they are so rare.
Yes, let's just hit a button that says "BUY IT NOW," not "ADD TO CART," with no intention of ever actually wanting the application in question.
Idiots.
Although I am very jealous that I did not think of something like this sooner, but I was honestly expecting a greater response.
I think the app has a perfect right to exist, as it's not fake - it quite clearly says what it does.
However, idiots will always click buttons, even the Big Red Button that says "do not press this button". Experiments have been done which demonstrate that a small percentage of people will always press such a button "just to see what happens".
The solution is simple in principle: The App Store should not force its customers to use 1-Click, but should support a shopping basket. That adds another idiot-proofing barrier. I'm not (IMHO) an idiot, but I've hit the 'buy' button too fast on Amazon before (only on a cheap DVD, fortunately) and so I switched to a shopping basket and have made no mistakes since.
1-Click is a good option to have, but it shouldn't be the default where substantial sums of money can be involved.
exclusivity does have a price!!
6 Americans!!
Now that's nothing new, most of the world would have expected it :-)
If people can blow $1000 for an app that does nothing, maybe it's a good sign that we're coming out of our economic recession?
no no, the problem is that there are a lot of people that are rich although they should not be. it is the duty of the smarter people to take that money away from them and bring it to more sensible use. i'm fully supportive of things like this as otherwise the money would just stay with these people. so it is actually a tool to make the world a fairer place. bring it back on, apple!
This is art (and it even seems to be a limited edition art). It should be left in the shop under the category art.
It's not limited at all - everyone who has looked at it in the app store has a copy of the graphic. I'm told you can even download it straight onto the iphone using safari.
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