Anyone with an iPhone in the late 2000s probably remembers the old 'iBeer' app, and according to a new interview, its huge popularity also resulted in pretty mind-blowing earnings. As smartphones have become more mature and more powerful, the way we use them has also changed. People used to be content with a phone that showed the weather, had a calculator app, and could play some light games. Today, people expect a lot more of their phones — demanding they connect to multiple social media apps, join video calls, watch live-streaming videos, and do countless other tasks.
This also means that the landscape for popular apps used to look way different than it does today. In 2022, the biggest apps on the App Store are things like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. A few years ago, iPhone users were geeking out over apps that turned their phones into lightsabers and laser guns. Also popular was something called 'iBeer.' Released in 2008 as one of the first apps on the newly-launched App Store, iBeer came with a simple premise: To turn people's iPhones into a virtual pint. It seems like an outright silly application to make today, but in a time where apps were a new and exciting concept to people, iBeer exploded with popularity.
Now, as part of an interview with Mel Magazine, iBeer's lead developer Steve Sheraton reveals just how popular the app actually got. It all started in 2007 when Sheraton uploaded a YouTube video of himself 'drinking a beer' from his iPhone. After raking in a few million views, he began selling the video file through iTunes for $2.99 per download. At the time, Sheraton was making around $2,000 every day from the video clip. Then, in 2008, Sheraton says he was approached by Apple to turn his beer video into an iPhone app. That eventually saw the launch of iBeer. Just like the original video, Sheraton listed iBeer on the App Store for $2.99. However, it was much more successful. At the height of iBeer's popularity, Sheraton says "we were making $10,000 to $20,000 a day."
Why iBeer Eventually Lost Its Popularity
But that was in the late 2000s. Most people with an iPhone today don't have iBeer installed. In fact, there are some iPhone owners who may have never used it. That's because iBeer's massive success was fairly short-lived. After shooting to the top of the App Store and appearing in publications like The New York Times and CNN, things changed for the virtual drinking app. For starters, Coors Brewing Company launched a very similar 'iPint' app shortly after iBeer's release. A lawsuit quickly ensued with a settlement between the two companies, but Mel Magazine says the whole thing resulted in "irreparable damage and lost profits."
There's also the fact that people's expectations of smartphone apps quickly shifted as the years went on. Apps like Facebook were already the hot new thing as early as 2010. The desire for an application like iBeer just wasn't as strong. As Sheraton explains, "A good joke can only be told so many times. Plus, the mystery of the technology itself shifted, and people’s tastes changed. It all went hand-in-hand."
While iBeer certainly isn't pulling in $20,000/day in 2022, it is still available on the App Store for anyone who wants to download it. Sheraton's no longer involved with its development and now resides on a farm in Spain with his family. If anything, a story like this is a fun reminder of how radically technology can change in a few short years. Today, people are nonstop talking about TikTok videos, NFTs, and Bitcoin. In 2008, a simple beer app is all we needed to keep ourselves entertained.
Source: Mel Magazine