One of the early app store follies, I Am Rich is one of the best examples of a savy developer profiting off an under-developed App Store approval process and a few customers who may not have realized that the app did in fact cost $999.99.
Despite its price, the I Am Rich app had no special features beyond displaying a red glowing jewel which when tapped read:
I am rich
I deserv it
I am good,
healthy &
successful
Eight people purchased the app before
Apple got wise and pulled it for good. Armin Heinrich, the German software developer who created I Am Rich, later said he was never paid the $5,600 or so he was due from his cut of those sales.
While the app lives on as an reminder of the App Store's early stumbles,
it was effectively copied by another developer named "Mike dg" for use in the Android's application marketplace as a $200 app called "I Am Richer." That price tag is the absolute top of what developers can charge on Google's Android Market. Though according to Mike dg, his version of the app has not made him rich. "I've sold about 50 copies of the app, probably a third of those were at $200," he told CNET. "But due to Android's return policy, all of the purchases at $200 were refunded."
Mike dg said he's seen better success at reducing the price, and that he himself pulled it from Android's marketplace, but later brought it back due to user requests. "Some people like to just show off funny stuff in the market," he said.