$2000 /day - The Price of an iPhone Developer’s Silly Mistake

Posted by Matt on July 17th, 2009 at 11:07pm Comments

Navigate to the App Store and then to Top 25 Free - at the top you will see Mirror Free, a totally pointless app which shows mirror frames and a black screen in the middle. Its a joke app but there is a non-funny side to this one… The developer decided to integrate AdWhirl, a method of monetizing iPhone applications by showing an advertisement.

After hitting number 1 on the app store, the developer noticed that no revenue was being generated from AdWhirl and so decided to investigate why. After all attempts to find out why had amounted to nothing, one of the AdWhirl team members downloaded the app, and noticed something rather peculiar - the ads that were in rotation were exact to the test ads that can be used. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the test key for the network was being used as opposed to the real key that should’ve been implemented meaning the ads were technically not linked with his account.

Co-Founder of AdWhirl, Sam Yam estimates that the approximate loss would’ve been about $2,000 per day! Not exactly a feeble amount by any stretch of the imagination. Luckily, the developer of Mirror Free was awarded the money from AdWhirl and I’m pretty sure the embarrassment will have taught him a lesson - Always check you’re using the right keys!

- Original Article by TechCrunch

 

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Filed Under: App Store+ News+ iPhone Funnies+ iPhone Programs