iPhone helping develop Malaysian talent

 

What's really interesting to see is that since the iPhone made its debut, there have been more applications being developed by home-grown talent.

YOU could not have picked up a newspaper, or walked past a news-stand, yesterday and not notice the massive marketing blitz for the new iPhone 3GS.

One daily had its entire front page done up to resemble the screen of Apple's revolutionary mobile device. Others placed one of their page one stories on an iPhone "screen".

The reason for all the hype? Maxis officially launched the iPhone 3GS in the home market yesterday.

Online bookings have been available since early this month and company executives, while not revealing their sales target, said that response has been better than for the first iPhone launch.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, I should confess that I own an iPhone. It is a first generation 2G model, purchased more than a year ago, unlocked and jailbroken from one of the many mobile phone seller booths that sell them in the Klang Valley.)

One of the biggest selling points of the Apple iPhone since it was first launched remains the 50,000 (and growing) applications available for download from the App Store.

There are applications to suit every need and interest: from business to gardening, academics, gourmet cooking, games, photography and social networking.

To an iPhone user, this means that the features and capabilities of the phone are limited only by their memory capacity (starting at a huge 8GB) and how much they are willing to spend (many of the applications are free; most cost less than US$2).

But what's really interesting to see is that since the iPhone made its debut, there have been more applications being developed by home-grown talent.

Among the earlier high-profile ones was nine-year-old Lim Ding Wen, a Malaysian boy living in Singapore, who created a finger-painting application called Doodle Kids.

His story was featured on BBC News earlier this year.

Espressoft Malaysia, formed in 2006, created the "PG Bridge" application that provides instant Penang Bridge traffic at drivers' fingertips.

It is now offering to help others develop applications for the iPhone.

Another is the "Malaysian Tech Blogger", or MTB, who is teaching anyone who visits his blog at www.matblogger.com how to become an iPhone application developer.

The blogger himself recently launched an application called Dino Cards, an interactive flash card programme that teaches children about dinosaurs.

Maxis also has in place a content development programme. At the iPhone 3G launch earlier this year, it recognised five companies that had developed applications for the Apple App Store.

I am sure there are others like Lim, Espressoft and MTB out there.

I hope they will continue to add a local flavour that not only meets the needs of Malaysian iPhone users but will also one day develop applications that millions of iPhone users around the world cannot live without.