AmpMe
Kosta Eleftheriou has found another apparently multi-million-dollar-grossing app that’s been on the App Store for over three years: a shitty music “volume boosting” music player named AmpMe that costs $10 per week after the three-day trial. Thousands of obviously fake reviews, millions of dollars “earned”. Even worse: Apple has repeated featured this app in the App Store.
There’s apparently no motivation to vet even the relatively small number of apps that are making millions, even before featuring them.
15 years after the iPhone was announced, the fact that the App Store is both a walled garden AND a wild west is one of the great disappointments of this whole era.
Previously:
- App Store Feature Promotes Rip-Off Apps
- The App Store Isn’t Catching the Most Egregious Scams
- Scammy WatchChat Competitors
Update (2022-01-17): Jason Cross:
AppMe has responded to the criticism by lowering its subscription costs and vowing to look into its “outside consultants,” according to an email sent to The Verge. But if a high-profile Twitter thread is what’s needed to bring attention to the issue, the problem is clearly much bigger than one app.
The developer admits their App Store page has been full of fake reviews for years while making millions, and Apple’s response is to now whitewash their page so that no-one will ever know this happened?
Welcome to the Wild Walled Garden, folks! 💸
Googled for the App Store promo code API and the top advertisement is just depressing.
What’s the point in having reviews at all when this stuff exists?
