The Signal: The App Gold Rush Meets Reality TV

Apprentice App Challenge: The app market is already overcrowded, but there’s money to made. You can be sure something has jumped the shark when it even tangentially involves Donald Trump. Count apps at that point. On the latest episode of The Apprentice U.K., the challenge was to create a mobile phone app. The challenge was to come up with an app in 24 hours. The real takeaway is that the app gold rush is clearly attracting get-rich-quick schemers, dreaming up ways to make millions off a fart application or some such nonsense. Check out how The Apprentice’s UK version of The Donald, Lord Sugar, described the app world: You didn’t need to go to a bank and ask for millions of pounds in investment. “You used your brains to come up with a product that you could develop quite simply and you can go and put it up on the Web and make some money. Because that’s the beauty of this business.” It sounds so easy, much like building a gold coin collection as a path to permanent financial riches! Don’t hold your breath for a big payday, considering the apps conceived included “Slangatang,” a soundboard app for regional dialects and Ampi-App, another soundboard but this time for animal noises. Digital Spy