AppStore approval mechanism has a lot to be desired

Today I saw a new program at the app store called "I Am Rich". The description says:

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.

It's a work of art with no hidden function at all.

This app costs $999.99! Does the author think any idiot is going to buy it? Why did Apple approve this? This is worse than the flashlight apps. The AppStore is turning into a pile of crappy apps with a small number of quality apps. As I indicated on the T4Show podcast yesterday, the cruft in the store is going to make it harder for serious developers to make money because people will get tired of sorting through this junk and then the main (only) avenue for distribution will basically be gone. Apple needs to actually screen applications and needs to charge way more than $99 to be in the program ($99 is far too low to screen out the people that aren't serious).

Comments

August 5th, 2008
Tyler

Why you call the Flash light apps, I’m not sure. I have a wonderful flashlight app that I’ve used many times and it works great, has even more functionality then “Granddialer”.

August 5th, 2008
Scott Gruby

I’ve used flashlight apps as a category of apps that are pretty basic and take little imagination to develop. Tons of applications have more utility than GrandDialer; GrandDialer is a once trick pony (at least at the moment). I think that developers can come up with stuff better than flashlight applications.

August 6th, 2008
Tyler

While I agree, check out myLite. The developer is going crazy, everything from a regular light, to a caution beacon, to a concert lighter. I think your app is useful, although not for my Touch (although if I could get voip on it…)