Does Apple's App Store encourage "crap apps?"

Could this be The End of Civilization as We Know It?

AppleInsider interviewed an iPhone software developer who spent 20 minutes creating an application he calls "shit" and then saw it soar, or perhaps float, to the App Stor's Top 10 list.

While there, Sound Grenade has been earning its author about $200 per hour even though its a free download for iPhone users. It's listed under "utilities" in the online store.

The application shows a single button that, when clicked, plays a loud, high-pitched sound, and shows an image. One reviewer described it as a prankster app.

The programmer is known only as High Gloss, anonymous because he's employed by an iPhone software company, where's he's worked on some 20 applications for the popular smartphone. He's a 22-year-old New Zealander, according to the AppleInsider story.

In his own blogpost, "I wrote a top 10 app...and its[sic] shit," he wrote that he was looking for application ideas, and reviewed the App Stor's top 100 downloads for inspiration. He gave himself a one-hour limit to write it. In the end, it took him 20 minutes to write the 10 lines of code that constitute Sound Grenade.

"The goal of my app was to create a tool for people to annoy others," he writes. "The end product was Sound Grenade, which is a really terrible app, one button turns a sound on or off, period. For 20 minutes work, I thought it would be interesting to take the ride. You can imagine my shock when I checked the App Store page on the first day to see 50 glowing reviews. 2 days later, another 50 reviews. 5 days later, Sound Grenade is in the top ten free apps almost everywhere in the world."

According to the AppleInsider story, High Gloss is "troubled by how popular 'crap' can be on the App Store, calling it 'a sad state of affairs where the world seems to be.'" But he praises the App Store concept.

The online market has been a phenomenal success story, but not without controversy. The process by which Apple approves iPhone applications remains shrouded in mystery. And in terms that somewhat echo High Gloss, software developer Craig Hockenberry has argued that the influx of 99-cent and free applications climb to the top of the charts because of their low price and high volume, in effect crowding out higher-priced software.

But Gloss at least has good reason for praising App Stor. Initially, Sound Grenade was completely free. But Gloss switched to an ad-supported model, which, he told AppleInsider, has been reaping about $200 per hour. He's now looking at an ongoing series of enhancements to Sound Grenade, building on its success as...crap. One idea: a feature that lets users 'confess' where and when they're detonating Sound Grenade.

Gloss likens the application, and the dynamics of App Store to pop music markets like Billboard Charts for Music.

"A good pop music producer can take someone with minimal talent, get them to sing some lyrics, and then run it through auto tune," he writes in his blogpost. "Bam. Number one song. Thats all it takes with the App Store. Do some market research, work out that most of the people that download free apps are immature and seriously uncool (except you, dear reader, you aren't like the rest of them*). Then, wrap an average idea that you think will appeal to immature and uncool people with some average graphics, and boom, top 10 app. Like the pop market, its hit and miss, sometimes it will work sometimes it wont."

As tempting as it is to see Sound Grenade and other iPhone applications of its ilk as the End of Civilization as We Know It, it isn't. Pranks, pratfalls, horselaughs, the 10-line applications that make them possible and much else are not High Culture. But they are indelibly human culture.

I'd prefer that High Gloss simply laughed all the way to the bank instead of lamenting his way there.

• Wireless / Mobile
• App Store
• Apple
• iPhone