Fortune on the ongoing problems with iPhones' and 3Gs' applications, sold by Apple. like this one:
I Am Rich: This one is a little easier to understand. The priciest app in the store — it sold for $999.99 — was also the most useless: it did nothing but take your money and display a red gem on your screen. “The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were rich enough to afford this,” the information page on iTunes warned. “It’s a work of art with no hidden function at all.” Apple, which was collecting $300 for every copy that sold (and at least eight did, developer Armin Heinrich told Silicon Alley News), may well have received complaints and felt obliged to protect unwitting customers. But what kind of screening process approved I Am Rich in the first place?And, of course, the fact that OS 2.0 self checks with an Apple web site to see whether it should delete some apps from itself, without the customer's knowledge or consent.
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3 comments:
Re: the "I Am Rich" application, I'm afraid we're just seeing an unfortunate side of human nature in this new arena.
As for Apple supposedly providing for deletion of apps "without the customer's knowledge or consent," that is speculative and in doubt. It appears more likely that the actual functionality is protecting user privacy from rogue apps that might abuse GPS location data. Explanation here:
http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/core_location_blacklist
Another explanation for the app's removal was that the developer pays the refund fees... and it only takes a small proportion of people accidentally "buying" it (say, by misreading the price as 10.00 rather than 1000) and then demanding a refund for that to add up to a large negative value.
(And screening processes?
Apple doesn't care if an application has no value beyond status signaling or aesthetics.
They care if it breaks the iPhone or poses a security threat.)
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Perhaps you can also review our site in your blog? Thanks.
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