Are you too young to remember “I Am Rich“?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich

"The application was removed from the App Store without explanation by Apple the day after its release, August 6, 2008"

Would be interesting to know the thought process for doing this.

"hey, do we want to see a headline every time someone asks for a $1000 refund, or do we pull this app that does nothing by a guy doing a bit"

Something like that I'd guess.

This was also in the first month of the App Store. iirc Jobs was nervous about third party apps being lower quality and tainting the perception of the platform, I don't think there was any PR calculus where this app survived

It embarrassed Apple.

It generated support complaints and provided no value to the user.

The value is there. People buy useless shit all of time to show off their wealth. Is there any difference between having a $10,000 app or having a $100+ cosmetic skin in a game?

Seeing prices list from 2008 having "today's dollars" is really scaring me.

Highly niche and specialised apps could set such price points. Medical apps come to mind.

I would imagine any medical app/ERP/etc. would have creative ways to get users to not make a one-time purchase via the Apple. Although certain interpretations of the rules might mean they have to offer App Store signup as an option.

Yeah apps for pilots also came to mind, though I took a look and ForeFlight was $400/year on the iOS store, not a one-time fee.

Why charge $1000 once when you can charge $400 six times?

I refuse to use apps like this. None of my Apple IDs have payment information associated with them.

I’m not aware of many apps like those that aren’t done via a B2B licensing agreement outside of the App Store.

Early on, I remember there being a tactic for apps where the owner wants them to be findable in the App Store, but doesn't want any new buyers, they set the price to $10K. But these days, I think the most expensive apps are $1K - app.cash, vueCAD Pro and Cyber Tuner.

At that point it would make sense for the vendor to mail you a top-of-the-line non-iOS device to avoid the 30% commission if at all feasible.

Maybe something like a Bloomberg terminal on the phone?

It does seem like quite a reach but I think there are a few legitimate niche markets for that price point.

I'm sure somebody could market some kind of "exclusive club" app. Virtual Fyre Festival or whatever.

Maybe not the app itself, but I could see for example, a business wants to purchase $10K worth of advertising on a platform through the their ad channel app.

It would seem crazy for an ad agency to implement that through an IAP where Apple takes $3k off the top (I assume that 30% rate still applies here?) when you're dealing with high-paying clients that could be told "go to our website to purchase"

I agree, but I guess we could say the same thing for all app and in app purchases.

Eh, not really. The benefit of in-app purchases is you can make a button that users can press that's probably already hooked up to their credit card so they can make purchases without the ask of getting them to type in their credit card number, which is a more conscious action that gives them plenty of time to think about whether or not they /really/ want to make that purchase. Amazon's one-click checkout, ShopPay, etc are not just for user convenience!

Comparatively, a high-profile client spending tens of thousands of dollars in ads isn't doing so on impulse, they're doing it cause it's their job. They'll open up a browser and punch in some banking details if it's the only way to get those ads out.

Isn’t the Tesla FSD available as an in-app purchase?

I believe you can buy it through the app but it’s not an IAP. it gets charged to your card associated with your Tesla account. Otherwise Apple would get their 30% and that’s not worth it to Tesla.

It looks like this isn't just iOS and iPadOS, but also macOS. In that case, there is plenty of software that fits that bill, such as Maya and Avid. I'm sure there's mass media, banking, video game development, and lots of other software that costs near that, or will some time in the future.

Even if it were just for iOS and iPadOS though, they do want iPad Pro to compete with desktops in places where expensive software runs. For instance, Grass Valley Livetouch could be done on an iPad.

Well, if you're gonna ask for 30% on NFT purchases, you better have no ceiling