'I Am Rich' Useless iPhone App Sells for $999.99

As Apple knows, perhaps better than anyone, there is a principle in marketing which says you can increase the perceived value of a product by raising its price. In other words, people will be happier with a product if they pay more for it. In fact, there is a study to prove this fact (Rangel, et al 2008) published in the Stanford Graduate Schools of Business News. This study found that people preferred wines with more expensive price tags, even if it was the same wine offered at different prices. While comparing wine and iPhones is a bit like comparing Apples and grapes, both wine and iPhones are what I would call status symbol products. If you're already paying money for a status symbol like an iPhone, is there a limit to how much people would spend to enhance the status symbol, and say to the world "I am rich"?

Comparing Apples and Grapes

We've all heard of people buying a rare bottle of wine for thousands of dollars. Apple's iPhone App Store limits the price that developers can charge for iPhone applications to $999.99. Very few iPhone applications could tempt me to lay out that much money. But one iPhone application, called I Am Rich and priced at that lofty level, sold eight copies before Apple unceremoniously pulled it from the Apple iPhone App Store.

The Useless iPhone App

So what does this fantastic iPhone app do? Absolutely nothing. Well, ok, it does display a large red ruby icon and the words "I am rich." Arguably, that's about what a $5000 bottle of wine does, too. Perhaps Apples and grapes are a fitting comparison after all. At least with the wine, though, there's the pretense that a true connoisseur finds the rare wine to have real value. I Am Rich, the useless iPhone application, created by Armin Heinrich, had this description at the Apple iPhone App Store before it was removed "The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this."

Burning Money to Say I Am Rich

There's an old cliché of a new millionaire lighting up his cigar with a hundred dollar bill, just to say I Am Rich. I've never seen anyone actually burn money this way, but the eight people who bought this useless iPhone App for $999.99 are lighting up their iPhone with thousand dollar bills, just to say I Am Rich.