The Perks of Being a Tech Blogger: Fans Will Buy Your Stupid App
John Gruber, a lively Apple blogger and probably the company's preeminent pro bono spokesperson, has a large following. It's a devoted following, too: so much so that he can sell $5 app that doesn't do things $0 versions do, and people lick it up.
Business Insider's Jay Yarow is smitten with the "superstar's" note taking app, Vesper—enough to write an almost 500 word press release. Never mind that the stock "Notes" app that comes pre-loaded on your iPhone does most of the same stuff. Never mind that the app doesn't sync outside of your phone, something every similar app does—Yarow credits this giant missing feature for making the app "faster." Never mind that, by Yarow's own admission, he hasn't even used Vesper. Gruber is Gruber, and his toenail clippings would be newsworthy to some.
I'm sure it's a coincidence that only the day before Gruber released this half-baked app, he linked—on his hugely popular blog—to an old MacWorld article: "A $5 app isn't expensive"