In August 2008, Apple approved an application in the App Store called I Am Rich. The app did nothing beyond show a picture of a red gem. So why was it notable? Because it cost $999.99. Though Apple pulled it relatively quickly, there was some concern that we’d start to see a rush of bogus applications and/or huge prices in the App Store. Luckily, that didn’t happen and app prices have remained low (some would say too low). But now we have the return of a $999.99 app.

But there’s a big difference with this app; BarMax CA actually does something. And to the people it’s aimed towards, it’s likely to be very useful. And quite possibly worth the $1,000 price tag.

BarMax CA is an application to help law students preparing for the bar exam. The reason the price is justified is because the company that is synonymous with this type of test prep, BarBri, typically offers it for $3,000 to $4,000. BarMax CA believes it can get away with the lower price because it’s just an app, there is no in-class element. Also, there has been some questions about BarBri’s pricing structure and anti-competitive behavior, which has been the subject of multiple class action lawsuits (hardly surprising when you’re selling these packages to future lawyers).

BarBri also offers an iPhone application, and it’s free, but you need to enroll in their program to access it otherwise it’s useless.

So what do you get for your $1,000 BarMax CA app? A lot, actually. The app is over 1 gigabyte in size, which is the largest application I’ve ever seen. It includes thousands of pages of materials as well as hundreds of hours of audio lectures. It’s all the information you could ever want for the two-month course. And again, it can be done all on your iPhone. That said, if you do want some more tangible paperwork for certain sections, BarMax will send you that electronically as well.

The bar exam consists of three main parts: Multiple choice, essays, and a performance test. There is also an ethics exam you have to take. As you can probably tell by the name, BarMax CA is meant for the California bar exam. But by the end of 2010, the company expects to have apps available for New York, and the five other most popular states for the exam as well. There will also be a multi-state version since much of the test (the multiple choice part, for example) doesn’t vary state to state. Each of these apps would cost the same $999.99 but there is also a plan to make an app with just the multiple choice part for $500.

Mike Ghaffary came up with the idea when he himself was preparing for the bar exam. He could not believe BarBri charged the $4,000 to send him an iPod with audio notes on it, and that there was no real competition in the space. So he got in touch with some successful iPhone app developers in Los Angeles, as well as some fellow Harvard Law graduates to create the app. Ghaffary, who is the director of business development at TrialPay by day, is serving as an advisor now to the team.

How this app sells will be interesting to say the least. Ghaffary confirmed that it is the most expensive app in the App Store, surpassing a home security app that sells for $899. Many iPhone developers have complained about a race to the bottom for app prices, but a few have tried to sell more expensive applications, such as Wolfram Alpha. But that $50 app doesn’t really give you anything you can’t get on its website, it just dresses the data up to look nicer on the iPhone. BarMax CA, again, is attempting to save law students thousands of dollars. It’s a good experiment, if nothing else.

Ghaffary notes that while Apple was extra careful in checking BarExam CA out due to the high price, they had no problems getting it approved, and Apple generally seemed pleased with the idea.

Still, the thought of being able to spend $1,000 with one click on your iPhone remains a little terrifying. Find the app here.

• White iPhone 4 evidence shows up in Apple Store app’s update?
• UK’s O2 to impose 3G data limits for iPhone 4 users

For the past four months, Amsterdam-based eBuddy has turned a profit, CEO Jan-Joost Rueb tells me, by offering advertising-supported services for free in combination with sales of a premium iPhone application.

The company, backed by $11.5 million in venture capital from Lowland Capital Partners and Prime Technology Ventures, markets a Web-based social network and instant messaging aggregator that enables people to sign in to their service once and stay connected to people through various platforms in one single interface where all of them are centralized.

It also offers a number of ways for people to use the service on their mobile phones, through a mobile web service, a Java-based messenger client and applications for iPhone and Android.

(Keep reading if you want to try their premium iPhone app for free, by the way)

Rueb informs me that the J2ME client in particular has seen phenomenal success, recently surpassing 50 million downloads. The free app is currently the most downloaded program as registered on GetJar, a one-stop shop for mobile applications, with more than 36.7 million installations (up from 10 million in March 2009).

Its iPhone applications (a free one and a premium one that goes for $4.99) are also quite popular: in total, the apps have been downloaded 3 million times since their debut in the App Store. The free version was released in July 2009, the paid app late November 2009.

eBuddy expected between 4% and 8% of its free app users to convert to the paid application, and says it is indeed currently hovering around a 6% conversion rate. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that its revenue from the premium app is thus about $900k, or $600k if you take into account Apple’s 30% cut. Conceivably, adding the revenue from ads on its free app, eBuddy is raking in around $1 million from its iPhone applications alone.

If you’re keen on giving the premium app a whirl for yourself: the first 1,000 users who purchase eBuddy Pro from the U.S. App Store and follow the instructions on this promotion page will receive an iTunes gift card worth $5, i.e. the price of the app.

In total, eBuddy has attracted about 100 million unique users, of which about a quarter uses the service at least once every month. These are heavy users: on average, 14 billion messages get sent via eBuddy per month. And don’t think all of them are using their cellphones: eBuddy’s Web application has seen 50% growth year over year, says Rueb.

Still, its strategy of having a feature-limited, ad-supported app in Apple’s App Store alongside a paid premium one with more bells and whistles, has resulted in close to 50% of the company’s revenues now coming from its slew of mobile products. Advertising accounts for about 60% of that income, and 40% comes from app sales today.

Rueb declined to share revenue numbers in greater detail, but said that the company has now been profitable on a net income basis for the past four months and is cash-flow positive, which means its mobile monetization strategy is clearly working out well for them.

A bit of good news for BlackBerry users, finally: eBuddy expects to (finally) ship a custom client for the platform in the next couple of months.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

• Sidebar Will Deliver Personalized Mobile Apps And Content To Your…
• Over Six Months Later, Google Finally Closes AdMob Acquisition

If Joe Wilcox ran the computer industry, we’d still be using typewriters.

Wilcox has a lengthy post today on BetaNews saying that the world doesn’t need an Apple tablet. And while Wilcox does have some decent general points mixed in with some bad ones, this is hardly a new thought. In fact, it’s little more than an extension of a concept that has been around for a while, but has been reinvigorated recently as the hype around Apple swirls: That tablet computers are a niche product. Of course, it’s easy to argue that when you have history on your side up until this point. But Wilcox’s post completely overlooks what is likely to be the larger point, and in general is a dangerous way of thinking.

Now, let me just state right off the bat, that Wilcox’s conclusion could absolutely be right: That Apple’s tablet device may well turn out to be a bust. While Apple has a great recent track record, a new product is still always going to be somewhat of a crapshoot, even for them. That said, Wilcox seems awfully close-minded about the product’s potential, and frames his argument around that. He argues, for example, that an Apple tablet will be little more than a less-compelling version of the iPhone because it is less portable. Meanwhile, users who want more computing power will continue to use laptops. Again, that’s the basic premise behind the most of the recent arguments against Apple’s tablet. But Wilcox doesn’t even for a second imagine something that is very obvious to most people who follow Apple closely: The likelihood that they’re going to release a product exactly as we’re currently thinking about it, is very small.

There is a reason that no less than Steve Jobs is said to be running point on this project, and has been for the several years that it has been in existence. The thought that Apple is simply going to settle, and release a product that is largely the same as all the other tablet computers that have come before it, is laughable. Jobs himself has supposedly shot down the product a few times because it wasn’t up to snuff. Don’t think that he won’t do it again, if he has to. But the indications now suggest that this product may finally be up to what he considers to be Apple’s standards. And if that’s the case, we can all expect something that’s at least somewhat unexpected.

And it’s potentially even bigger than that. Last week, I argued that the reason everyone is so excited about this tablet is because there is the very real possibility that it will alter the role of computing in our lives just as the iPhone has. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber took that concept further: “I think The Tablet is nothing short of Apple’s reconception of personal computing,” he wrote. While both of those concepts may sound a bit extreme, stop to think what is more likely: That Apple is happy to create a standard offering in a niche category, or that they’re trying to redefine the category and possibly the entire market?

It’s Apple, they’re trying to hit a homerun. That doesn’t mean they won’t strike out, but make no mistake that they are swinging for the fences. To create a bland tablet in the image of those that existed before it would be the equivalent of a bunt with no one on and two outs.

Something else to consider: There is the very real possibility that this could be Jobs’ last major new product launch. Health issues aside, Jobs will sooner or later retire from Apple. As we all know, products take a long time to come into existence from beginning to end — especially at Apple. And while I’m sure they have other new projects in the pipeline, it certainly seems possible that this tablet could be the last major one for a least a few years. Does anyone really think Jobs is going to go out betting on a niche product? No.

Wilcox argues that Apple’s recent hits like the iPod and iPhone were both just extensions of markets that already existed and were proven: Portable music players and mobile phones. That’s true, and Wilcox does acknowledge that Apple did make both of those markets better with their offerings. But he says that the tablet market won’t be the same because it’s “niche,” and Apple won’t be able to jump start it. Of course, this completely overlooks perhaps the best example: That Apple did jump start the personal computing revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Before that, the best way to describe the PC was “niche.”

The most peculiar aspects of Wilcox’s post: His constant asking for readers to argue with him in the comments (we call this “baiting”), and his thought that if the tablet flops, it will demolish Apple’s stock price (I mean, it’s not like they’re making billions in profit each quarter off of all their other businesses and have more than enough leverage for even large risks now), simply distract from the rest of his post. Wilcox often likes to take the contrarian approach with regard to Apple, and that’s fine, it stirs interesting thoughts and discussions. But he’s often wrong, simply because it seems like he’s wants to reach a certain conclusion.

But all of this goes deeper still. The main problem I have with Wilcox’s post is the implication is that no company should step outside of its comfort zone. The arguments that Apple shouldn’t build a tablet simply because other companies have tried and failed in the past, or that they shouldn’t make a tablet because they failed with the Cube, are both troubling. Apple clearly believes that the future of computing is touch-based, and the tablet is a step in that direction. Maybe they’re wrong, but it would be a disservice to everyone to suggest they not even bother to try and find out. The potential upside is far too high. It’s the kind of stuff that keeps technology exciting and advancing.

[photo: flickr/rego]

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

• New Facebook iPhone App “Pretty Much Done”
• ZumoDrive Lands $1.5 Million For Cloud Storage And Syncing Application

After discovering that Apple had registered iSlate.com in late 2006 (we dug a little deeper and found trademarks had been filed for ‘ISLATE’ in both the United States and Europe by a company that was most likely a dummy corporation set up by Apple), MacRumors has now discovered another possible name for the upcoming Apple tablet.

MacRumors bases its report on the filing for a US trademark for ‘IGUIDE’ by another Delaware-registered company called iGuide Media LLC, which can be linked to Cupertino by means of signatures on the documents coming from Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist, Regina Porter.

Let’s dig a little deeper, once again.

Domain names

There’s no indication that Apple owns any domain name that contains the term ‘iguide’. The identity if iguide.com is shielded from public WHOIS records, but not by Mark Monitor, the brand protection firm Apple usually works with. The domain name iguide.net belongs to a company called iGuide Media, a marketing and design firm started by Jon Warren back in 1997 and led by a Brian Noon from 2002 to 2006, when the company was sold.

I checked a couple of other TLDs (.ca, .fr, and more) and found no indication that Apple owns any of those.

Trademarks

Two trademarks were filed for ‘IGUIDE’ by iGuide Media LLC (through a James Johnston) in the United States: a principal and a service mark, both on 18 December 2007. The description of goods and services given to iGuide Media is very similar to the one given to Slate Computing, the supposed shell company set up by Apple used to register the trademark for ‘ISLATE’, although it leans a bit more to a focus on software and services than hardware.

On the exact same day, iGuide Media LLC filed for a trademark in Europe as well: search OHIM for ‘iguide’ and you find a trademark filing that has all the Apple marks on it: the legal representative is ‘EDWARDS ANGELL PALMER & DODGE UK LLP’ (the same as for ‘ISLATE’ and ‘MACBOOK’, among others), and the priority country is Trinidad & Tobago, the same as when Apple filed for the ‘iphone’ trademark in Europe.

Noteworthy: the status history suggests that the community trademark application was registered (not filed) in February 2009, and that the full examination of the CTM application has been completed very recently, on the 18th of December 2009 to be exact.

Final thoughts

If I were betting man, I’d still be putting my money on the name iSlate for the tablet, Magic Slate for a possible peripheral, and iGuide for a service linked to the hardware device(s).

Here’s why:

- Apple doesn’t seem to own, directly nor indirectly, any ‘iguide’ domain names
- The ‘ISLATE’ and ‘MAGIC SLATE’ US trademarks were not filed for separately as a service trademark, unlike ‘IGUIDE’
- The ‘ISLATE’ US trademark was filed earlier than ‘IGUIDE’, by a different shell corporation (and the same as ‘MAGIC SLATE’)
- NYTimes editor Bill Keller’s mention of an ‘Apple slate’ device in a past speech
- According to Trademarkia, the ‘ISLATE’ trademark application was extended a second time last September, to show use in commerce
- The slightly different description for ‘goods and services’ for both Slate Computing and iGuide Media

Or, of course, we’re all wrong, and none of these names will ever be actually used by Apple. I would deem that unlikely, but we can’t know for sure.

Besides, has Apple announced that it’ll be selling a tablet computer yet?

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

• RIM co-CEOs pull no punches responding to Apple’s antenna statements
• For The Future Of The Media Industry, Look In The App Store