I Am Rich iPhone App Totally Useless, Costs $1,000, For Jerks

**UPDATE** The "I Am Rich" app has been removed from the app store. Silicon Alley Insider has more.

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While many of the apps in Apple's (AAPL) iPhone App Store are useful, some are utter crap. And the latest, spotted by John Gruber, is an insult to all the well-meaning developers that Apple made wait/are still waiting to get into the iPhone developer program.

i-am-rich-screen.jpgBehold: "I Am Rich," a $999.99 app from Armin Heinrich, which just displays a red gem on the phone's screen -- nothing else.

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-OR-

Not rich? Knit an iPhone. Or just be glad you're not being tracked by Big Brother, who by the way is making you into GPS performance art.

Comments

[c1ee]

LOL glad someone had a sense of humour.

[ramblingjohnny]

I guess only Apple can scam his customers on the IPhone platform!

[CaptainHowdy]

Since when is a jpg considered an app?

Oh, I forgot... we're talking Apple here. Never mind.

[gwhizz]

Love it. LOVE IT.

[Fudgefase]

I think it's brilliant. Great concept - faultless premise. Apple shouldn't have pulled it - it did what it said on the tin!

[mairs]

That app sort of bears a resemblance to HAL. I'd like HAL on my screen.

[Fudgefase]

HAL would be very cool. Maybe it could tell you when you were nearing the hour in a worried voice....

[JessWonderin]

"Value " is perception . . . good art is always expensive.

(makes you think of those who grab a Robb Report and put a six pack of Old Milwaukee on the credit card . . . )

[arizonabay]

Just funny on so manny levels!

[WasteNJ]

$1000 for a wallpaper. OK. This is the iPhone equivalent of flashing your black AmEx card.

[Corinth]

How is this any different from going to a whitesmith and paying top dollar to have something incased in silver or a jeweler to have it worked with gold filigree? The free market will respond to whatever it can bare, and getting uppity over one form of decadence on display, at this point in our history, strikes me as a little silly.

[WasteNJ]

It's different because it's just a digital image. Gold and Silver are precious metals and actually have value, whatever the use. Same customer base though.

[Corinth]

Oh certainly, a use as electronic wiring, heat dissipaters, or shielding from electromagnetic waves¦ but on your car, or neck, or fingers- or any of the ways it is used in the consumer world? It is used because it is expensive, and it is expensive because it is used to display wealth. Self assuring market. It"s a visible separator- those who have, and those who do not. Limiting access to a thing (like dye colors) to display wealth is not a new idea; as you said, this is the digital age-but controlling something by making it price prohibitive is business as usual for the human race. Seems to me, someone just put a new spin on an old game which few have objected to over the centuries.

[framah]

This is what is called the "pet rock" theory.

If you can think of it, there is always someone out there who will actually buy it.

It doesn't matter how stupid the idea is, someone will buy it, as this example proves.

Further proof of this theory is that there was an actual pet rock cemetery for when your pet rock died... and people PAID to have the rock cemented into a rock wall in a guys yard.

[reshadiye]

"I Am Rich iPhone App Totally Useless, Costs $1,000, For Jerks".

WHOOOSSHH... Google Marcel Duchamp or Andy Warhol for context. I expect this to be over the heads of the fox news crowd, but liberal-arts educated huffpost readers should get a chuckle out of this at the very least. Lighten up.

[WasteNJ]

Armin Heinrich is a genius. I wonder how many thousands he made before apple yanked the "buy" link for the US market.

Probably made 100 grand in sales to Dubai. One of the sheiks there recently flew his Lamborghini Gallardo to England and back, for an oil change. VIP guards carry gold-plated AK-47's.

Yeah.

[Torus34]

The thought that people would pay money to carry around a device which, in the words of Bierce, produces 'a stench in the ear' has always made me smile.

[AmandaBC]

Buying an iphone and being locked in a $100/mo contract with the provider of **THEIR** choice (which BTW, happens to be the greatest accessory in the government spying on America's crime) already screams SUCKER, so it's quite natural that scammers know i-phone users is a great pool to fish for idi0ts with more money than sense...

[richsmith]

My iPhone cost ~64 dollars a month with phone plan. No surprises, never higher. Never would sign on to Verizon. They nickel and dime you to death. Mine is 44 for tele service and 20 for their "Edge" internet. Dropped phone in the water a few weeks back. Still chugging. Dropped an elderly Nokia in water a few years back, tried turning it back on and watched for a minute or two as the life drained out of it. iPhone is the quintessential merging of the most extraordinary accomplishments of modern technology. Could hardly do without it.

[stepintothelight]

Couldn't afford one hunh? I love my iPhone but would never make this purchase. You just sound like an Apple hater here. I have had my phone for over a year now and I don't pay 100 a month. Don't hate .... relate!!!

[Andman0121]

iPhones are a COMPLETE waste of money. A cell phone is a cell phone is a CELL PHONE. I dont need my phone to act as a freakin technological Swiss Army Knife. Its ridiculous.

[sedum]

You "love" your iphone? You are truly, truly sad.

[netzwerg]

The iPhone Tool comes from a friend of mine here in Germany. Apple gets 30% and my buddy gets 70% of the money people paid for this application. In the US it costs 999$ and in Europe 799‚¬.
Until this morning the AppStore sold his application 12 times, which made him earn about 6000‚¬ (8950$) so far.

[brakmaster]

Good for him. It's a great idea!