The Ill-Fated Tale of Phoneys, the Stupid Little Sticker Pack That Went #1 on the App Store

Adam Howell:

Wednesday night of this week, John Gruber wrote, “This is very clever, and I can see how it could be damn funny, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Phoneys gets pulled from the App Store.” Shortly after John’s post — I mean, you can’t buy press better than that, a post from Gruber about $.99 stickers so clever that Apple was sure to pull them? — Phoneys, the stupid little sticker pack I’d launched just a few days before, climbed to #1 Top Paid and #1 Top Grossing in the iMessage app store.

Thursday night, last night, Bill from Apple called me.

Interesting that Apple is giving him a week to change the sticker style. But I really think Apple had no choice. The idea of Phoneys is fun, but I don’t think Apple should allow pranks like this in the App Store.

★ Friday, 30 September 2016