The creator of the classic iBeer app for iPhone has revealed that in the past, customers would be enraged when real beer didn’t come out of their smartphone, and we can’t quite believe it.
Steve Sheraton is the brains behind one of the oldest and most downloaded apps to ever appear on the App Store – the iBeer app that gives the impression the user is drinking from their iPhone.
He revealed the claim about some users apparently expecting to drink real beer from their phones during an AMA (“ask me anything”) session on Reddit with the Californian-headquartered men’s magazine, MEL Magazine.
The session began with Sheraton discussing the profits he made from the app. He vaguely said in response to one question that he had made “a few million dollars” from the app, adding that “most of it went right back into other technology projects and lawyers.”
We do already know from an interview published earlier this year, that Sheraton has claimed the app was making as much as $20,000 a day during its prime.
It does sound as though he may have seriously needed the lawyers, as in one of his other answers, Sheraton said some people who downloaded the iBeer app had believed that it would somehow enable them to actually drink beer from their iPhones.
Sheraton explained: “We had to create our own fluid simulation engine with the help of physicists. Apple kept rejecting updates because of the burp. People kept getting super angry because no real beer came out. Seriously!”
Some might have interpreted that as a joke or exaggeration, but Sheraton elaborated on the claim in his reply to another question. When a commenter said the app caused them to fall in love with the iPhone, Sheraton responded: “But you were smart enough not to expect real beer to come out. Oh the fun we had with those App Store and YouTube comments…”
To this day, Sheraton isn’t exactly sure why the ‘burp’ after someone used the app to ‘drink beer’ caused Apple to reject updates. He simply said: “One day the whole App Store farted and burped, the next day a mere sneeze got your app pulled.”
He also quipped during the AMA session that Apple took 30% revenue from the app, but “100% of all my nerves.”
The iBeer app continues to be available to download for the iPhone and iPad via the App Store.