Most expensive applications

The App Store has a price limit—the most expensive app can cost $999.99. Surprisingly, apps at this price point do appear from time to time. These are mostly specialized apps, such as BarMax, an app for law students developed with the help of Harvard lawyers. The app is over 1 GB in size, and according to reviews, its buyers are satisfied with the value it provides. However, this is not always the case.

The very first app to appear on the market in 2008, priced at just under a thousand dollars, became famous for the controversy it sparked. The app was called I am Rich, and for a thousand dollars, it displayed an icon in apps indicating that the iPhone owner was rich. When launched, it showed a large shining gemstone. And that was it. Eight copies of the app were sold in 24 hours, which meant $5,600 in revenue for its developer, Armin Heinrich. Apple subsequently canceled two orders when buyers complained that they thought it was a joke. We don’t know how much the remaining six rich people enjoyed the app. Apple subsequently withdrew the app, even though Heinrich had not violated any App Store terms and conditions, reigniting the debate about how Apple itself can manipulate the App Store terms and conditions and how confident developers can be about their investments in the development of the iPhone platform. Apple, however, emphasized that its goal is to provide users with adequate value for their money.

The case of Google and its Android Market showed a different approach. While Apple checks, tests, and approves apps, declaring whether they do what they claim to do and do not do what Apple does not allow, Google has decided to be open about this and leave the whole thing up to the developers. Developers can display whatever they want in the Market, and it is up to users to accept it. While Apple takes a strict control approach, Google is liberal. On the one hand, Apple iOS users are protected from viruses and malware that appear on the Android platform, but on the other hand, developers for its platform cannot afford to do everything they can on Android. Both camps are trying to reduce the disadvantages of their approach, Apple, for example, by responding flexibly to changes in developer demand, and Google by responding flexibly to the emergence of fraudulent applications. It can therefore be said that the battle between liberalism and control has not yet been fought, and it is even possible that we will not see any fundamental decision. It is more a question of how flexibly both companies approach their model than what their initial position was, and it is true that the unsuccessful Nokia has not been a model of flexibility in recent years.

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Most expensive applications

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