The watchword, in general, is "free". But, it seems, significant exceptions are popping up. In a planet – the Internet – where the average user is ready to trigger a civil war if a messaging app has the incautious idea of charging even 80 cents a year for the service, it is news that there are other types of users, who – rather – are ready to empty their wallets to download the latest trend in applications.
Taking a tour of the Apple Store, the largest app platform in the world (it has more than 900), it is easy to see that 90 percent of the products on sale are free of charge. The fact is that, by carefully probing the whole offer, one discovers prices that go far beyond all expectations.
Required premise: the maximum possible price for an app on the Apple Store is set at $999,99. A figure that has unleashed the imagination of developers with the most entrepreneurial flair, those who have immediately identified a niche of people who like to spend just to have an application of their dreams, even if this is useless. The most notable example is I am rich, an iPhone app that did nothing but celebrate the supposed well-being of its users. An emotion paid for on the edge of a thousand dollars.
Today, in reality, the top-of-the-range club is mainly made up of applications with some utility. Which? The Top Apps ranking, taken from the English magazine, helps in this Telegraph, which mentions the most striking cases.
There are, currently, only 4 developers selling at the highest possible price. One of them created VIP black, which promises to offer “VIP treatment, with extra special experiences such as free upgrades, surprise gifts, welcome packs and other exclusive privileges from partners affiliated with the iVip Ltd group”. But, you know, a thousand dollars are argent de poche for real VIPs. That's why the app asks the user to prove that his income is more than a million dollars.
He also appears in the leading quartet BarMax CA, an app that helps law students pass the bar exam. For the record, in 2012, users scored 20 points higher than the state average. Then, there is agro, used by farmers to track their crops, and MobiGage NDI, which helps producers manage the assembly stages.
Perfume of scam in fifth place. For almost 800 dollars Preebs helps commuters to spend their commute to work better, with games, coupons and, above all, the amazing possibility of having the advertising billboards that appear along the way changed.
At a cost of $349, Barcelona vs Real Madrid claims to revive El Clasico with “the most realistic graphics and simulations. Too bad the reviews call it "nonsense". At the same price, MobileCamViewer allows businesses to remotely control surveillance cameras and PDR quote creates invoices via iPhone.
The list is long and includes, at $99, Sexy Finger Print Test HD, an app that tells you how sexy you are based on your fingerprint. Even self-esteem has a price.
