Apple removes worthless $1,000 app from iPhone store
Update, 11:56 a.m.: The app vanished from the app store, but not the actual iPhones of users. Mea culpa—thanks to Paul and Todd. I’ve changed the headline. Still, one wonders about the future. - D.R.
For months now I’ve been griping about Amazon’s ability to zap books from Kindle owners’ libraries.
But will this also be a problem with Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch?
Recently via remote control [wrong], Apple removed a featureless $1,000 app from the iPhones of people foolish enough to have paid for it. The big mystery is how the "I am Rich" app made it into the App Store in the first plane. Still, could Apple have handled things a better way?
And in the future, will copyright owners or libel plaintiffs demand pruning of electronic shelves? Remember, Apple is selling some books as apps. And maybe in the future this capability will extend to other kinds of files, if it doesn’t already. Just great for the Chinese market, eh? And maybe the American one, too, in time—if the present assault on individual liberties continues?
August 8th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I don’t think your information is correct. Apple removed this application from their App store, not user’s iPhones. In fact, the remote control feature rumor that has been going around the past day or so has also proven to be false.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’m a little ambivalent towards the idea, as far as Amazon - on the one hand, I don’t think they have the right to touch any non-Amazon sold content, for any reason, but can see a few reasons they may need to do so for content sold via Amazon. First, if you “return” a book, they remove it from your Kindle - a perfectly legit action.
Second, if you transfer a Kindle from one account to another, they remove the content. I don’t like it much, but it does enforce their “contract” with the end-user. This also prevent the unscrupulous from buying a Kindle, loading it with (paid for) books, then selling it “with content”, while purchasing a new Kindle and repeating (technically, of course, they can still do this, but the first time the purchaser turns on Whispernet, the content disappears; I don’t know if the USB sync with Amazon would do this, however, so it may still work for sales to non-Sprint areas).
A third reason to delete content is when a Kindle is lost or stolen. In this case, I wish that Amazon would be even more pro-active, rather than treating it as a gifted or sold Kindle — I’d rather that they never allowed that Kindle to download content and that anytime it was turned on, the approximate location (which is known via Whispernet) be reported to the police. And that the only thing displayed on the screen be a request to turn it in (or mail it back to Amazon), along with whatever info is needed to return it to the owner. Reports of lost Kindles are already hitting the news here and there and one would suspect that the theft rate is only low because a book reader is not considered as desirable by thieves as an Ipod (despite similar sales, so similar resale/pawning potential). But some electronics really do have the ability to render themselves useless on the black market - and this is one that could do that. If laptops did the same, both would cease to be such desirable targets in airports, hotel rooms and rental cars.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Excellent points, Karen, thanks. The DEL capabilities still make me nervous, of course. One partial solution—though I won’t count on it—would be for publishers to be less pushy so Amazon didn’t have to do these things. Thanks. David
August 8th, 2008 at 11:41 am
David writes:
> Recently via remote control, Apple removed a
> featureless $1,000 app from the iPhones of
> people foolish enough to have paid for it.
Hold the phone (so to speak.)
I’ve seen stories about “I Am Rich” being removed from the App Store, and I’ve seen stories about an alleged capability that would allow Apple to remove apps from iPhones via remote control, but I’ve read nothing about Apple exercising such a capability on “I Am Rich” or any other app. Not even the Techmeme article you cite says anything about “I Am Rich” being removed from purchasers’ phones.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I think you’re conflating two stories, David.
The $1000 “I Am Rich” app (which reminds me of the old joke about the farmer selling million dollar watermelons—a passer-by told him, “You’ll never make a living selling million dollar watermelons,” and the farmer replied, “I only have to sell one.”) was removed from Apple’s store (though not too late for eight people to buy it, including at least one by accident), and there has been some paranoia going around about Apple having a “secret software kill switch” that can remove apps you’ve already bought from your machine—but not only was “I Am Rich” removed only from the app store and not from the iPhones of anyone who bought it, but the paranoia over the “kill switch” is completely unwarranted—not only has no app ever been added to that list, but it doesn’t even do what people jumped to the conclusion that it does in the first place.
There has been a lot of anti-Apple hysteria in the news and opinion blogs lately. Some of it may be warranted, and Apple hasn’t been helping any with its blatant refusal to comment on issues relating to the iPhone app store approval process and NDA, but it doesn’t do anyone any good to jump to the worst possible conclusion about anything Apple may or may not do. Remember Hanlon’s razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
August 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
You’re right, Todd and Paul and Chris, and I’ve changed the headline and inserted a correction. Thanks for the catch, all of you! David (on a busy morning)
August 8th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
This incident raises several interesting questions:
(1) If a customer is stupid enough to pay $1K for an iPhone app that does absolutely nothing, is that really Apple’s problem?
(2) How can anyone claim to have purchased an app “accidentally” when a password is required to complete a purchase?
(3) Should Apple offer refunds to customers who purchased “I Am Rich?” If so, will they?
(4) Will this incident encourage Apple to add a much requested “try before you buy” facility to the next release of the App Store?
(5) Do customers really want Apple making value judgments regarding the worthiness of iPhone apps?
(6) When Apple withdraws an app from the App Store, or when it fails to release a legitimate app submitted by a developer, does it owe the developer an explanation or should it be allowed to act imperiously?
August 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
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