apps developers

Last weekend was hectic for the 95-odd participants who gathered at the ‘Start-up Weekend’ here. Techie youngsters group, guided by various mentors, formed teams and developed mobile or web based applications to solve specific problems or create new experiences for Application users. The Application ranged from a flat finding app, an Application for video tagging to an intra-institution social network app. Three Application won prizes, which included free credits from Amazon WebServices, Zip-Dial, Interview Street and Oz onetel. The winning Application included ‘Park-e-mon Application’, a parking management solution, ‘Opti Rate Application’—a mobile value-added service Application and ‘Desi Karaoke Application’, a game Application for social networks. The Park-e-mon solution comprises two applications a webbased portal Application and a mobile Application suitable for any smart phone. The webbased application is used by office administrators and building managements and would have details about the offices, contact people and vehicles that would be granted parking space. The mobile Application is used by parking attendants to record the entry and the exit details of each vehicle in the Parking Space, and these are updated in the web based database in real time in the Application. The Application does away with two out of three people manning a web based parking system. The web based system can give a snapshot of the overall parking situation in a building at any given moment. It also enables the instant identification of cars parked in wrong slots by checking their registration number against the vehicle database.

Though the web based parking application system is not meant to replace mechanical barriers, it would introduce more efficiency by eliminating logbooks. SudeepDSouza, who led the four-member team that developed the app, says he plans to charge '25,000 a year as installation fee, along with a nominal monthly maintenance fee. A few companies in Hyderabad have expressed willingness to adopt the solution, says SudeepDSouza. The solution is being run on a pilot basis at an office complex in Hyderabad, which has parking capacity of 150 cars and 600 two-wheelers. OptiRate, which won the second prize, is an app for Android phones. The app is designed to recommend the best tariff plan, based on the user’s pattern of usage. It also, through a web interface, enables recharge with a single click on mobile and online system. Mr.RajagopalGrandhi, one of the developers of the application, says his team would introduce it in the market in three months after some fine-tuning. “The users’ first experience of our application should be good, so we would take some time,” RajagopalGrandhi says. The Parking application, when installed in a smartphone, would alert the user about credit expiry, and also suggest the best rate plan offered by the operator that suits the user’s needs by analyzing his call records with application. For recharges, apart from charging a fraction of the recharge value as fee, the developers expect to tap advertisements as well.

The third prize-winning application, Desi Karaoke application, was developed by a young team from the Indian School of Business. MR.AchintParekh, one of the app’s developers, says it was not meant for trouble-shooting, but to add a new experience to social networking sites such as Facebook. The app, currently available only for Android, is free and comes with a few Indian instrumental music tracks. It allows users to record their singing along with the background music, and this can later be shared with friends on social networks and can also be compared with the original. Says MR.AchintParekh, “Games like MR.AchintParekh are popular in India, but karaoke is available only for some English songs. On the other side, games on social networks are changing the whole game experience. Our idea combines these two trends to offer karaoke as a social game.” Desi Karaoke application developers are in talks with T-Series and other music companies for tracks. The Desi Karaoke app is expected to be functional in a few weeks. MR.AchintParekh said the apps developers would consider the project a success if it touches 500 downloads a month.