How a Virtual Beer Became the App Store's First Viral Hit

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-25

In July 2008, Steve Jobs and Apple were gearing up for the launch of the App Store. Jobs told The New York Times that the quality and sophistication of iPhone apps would be "in a different class." In a funny way, he wasn't wrong. The store opened with over 500 apps, hand-picked to show off what the original iPhone could do. There were games, productivity tools, social networks, and plenty of apps that existed just to prove a point about the hardware. Of that first batch, the one that grabbed the most attention made your phone look like a glass of beer. ### The magician behind iBeer The man behind iBeer was Steve Sheraton, a magician who built technology-based illusions. Before the iPhone, he'd already turned a mobile device into a convincing virtual drink with E-spresso, a video trick that made the screen look like it held a cup of coffee. The iPhone gave him something the Palm Pilot never had: an accelerometer. Instead of just playing a video of a drink, Sheraton could make the illusion react to how you held the phone. Tilt the device and the liquid moved with it. Turn it far enough and the beer seemed to pour toward the edge of the screen. Simple idea, but for 2008, the effect was shockingly convincing. ### From YouTube views to App Store charts Before the App Store even existed, Sheraton had an audience. He posted a video of the iPhone "beer-drinking" trick to YouTube, and it pulled in millions of views. People wanted the trick for themselves, so he started selling the video file for just over $2 (about €2 at the time), reportedly earning a few thousand dollars a day at its peak. When Apple prepared the App Store launch, iBeer was a perfect demo of the iPhone's capabilities. It used the accelerometer, the touchscreen, and the sharp display, and it needed almost no explanation. You didn't have to know what an accelerometer was. Someone could just hand you an iPhone, tilt it toward their mouth, and pretend to drink. When the App Store opened on July 10, 2008, iBeer was among the first apps available. Sheraton kept the same price, and by his own later accounts, it shot to the top of the charts. ### The copycats show up fast Success on the new App Store also proved something else: if an idea worked, it could be copied overnight. Later in 2008, Molson Coors released iPint, a free app with a nearly identical virtual beer. But unlike iBeer, iPint was really an ad for Carling beer. Sheraton and his company, Hottrix, objected and eventually took legal action. The dispute showed one of the odd realities of the early App Store. A developer could build something seemingly trivial, get it into millions of hands, and suddenly find themselves up against a major corporation. It was a sign of how fast the economics of software were shifting. ### Why iBeer still matters Looking back, it's easy to write off iBeer as a novelty. In many ways, it was. It didn't make you more productive, help you navigate, or connect you with friends. It made your phone look like a pint of beer. But that was the appeal. In 2008, the smartphone was still new and a little magical. The idea that a phone could respond to how you tilted it felt like a trick. iBeer didn't just show off the accelerometer. It showed that the App Store could turn a simple, silly idea into a global hit overnight. And that changed what developers thought was possible.