SIDDHARTHA BANERJEE, 37, is a commerce grad who has worked in advertising for many years now. Like many in the ad world he’s a huge Apple fan. In fact, he decided to quit his job and set up a company that produces applications for Apple products. Machead, as he calls himself, is no techie, and has taught himself to write software code; he’s spent Rs 15,000 on manuals so far. The result? Meter Down, an Apple app that calculates autorickshaw fares in Mumbai. The city’s auto meters don’t display the fares but instead, show a number based on distance travelled. A printed tariff sheet shows the fare corresponding to the meter reading. So far, there have been 40,000 downloads of Meter Down, around 30 a day. He’s now developed a sari app to teach people how to wear one.

Several hundred kilometres south of Mumbai is Udupi in Karnataka, a temple town, and home to a growing band of app developers. Udupi-based Robosoft Technologies was among the first few companies to make applications for Macs, starting in 1996. In 2008, the company started 99games to develop game-based apps for the App Store. “Our past association with Apple gave us an understanding of the kind of applications and quality standards that were required to be successful on the App Store,” says Vinodh Kumar, business analyst, Robosoft Technologies.

Then, there’s 28-year-old Karthik Janagiraman, a software engineer from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli. Last year, he launched his free radio app. Tandora—a collection of radio stations that play popular Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu music. The app has been downloaded over a million times, mostly by Indians living abroad.

BANERJEE, KUMAR, AND JANAGIRAMAN are part of a growing army of Apple app developers in India—think of them as Apple’s foot soldiers in the conquest of the subcontinent. India is not on Apple’s list of preferred markets; according to tech research firm CyberMedia Research, the iPhone accounted for a mere 0.02% of the mobile handset market in the first half of 2011.

However, developing mobile phone applications is obviously a booming business, with some 500,000 apps available for the iPad and iPhone alone, and a shade under 300,000 apps in the Android store. Analysts do not expect the app excitement to slow any time soon.

Earlier this year, research firm Gartner said the global mobile applications market will generate revenue of around $58 billion (Rs 2.8 lakh crore) by 2014, up from $15.1 billion in 2011. Developers get an average of 70% of the revenue every time their app is sold, which means that by 2014, they will take over $40 billion of this pie.

Indian app developers are finding that they can share in this wealth by putting their apps on these global stores. Although Tandora is a free app, its popularity has given Janagiraman the confidence to launch new, paid-for apps. “I have a ready user base that I can tap when I launch my next application, which might be a paid one based on the National Football League (NFL) and cricket,” he says.

Some developers have set up their own app development companies. XLabz, set up by Krishna Prathab R.V. in Chennai in 2008 to work on outsourced Adobe projects and third-party Internet applications, now develops apps for the iPhone, iPad, and the BlackBerry Playbook. One of its most popular apps is Find Me Near, a location-based search, which has been downloaded over 300,000 times in the past one year.

Banerjee is also planning to set up his own company. He has what he needs to develop and test his apps: a Mac-based computer, iPhone, iPad, and $99 to pay the developer submission fee. Other developers, like 26-year-old Gaurav Raj, just want to join a company that will allow them to create apps on iOS (the operating system that runs the iPhone and iPad). That’s why Raj moved to Ranchi, Jharkhand, from Bangalore.

Although Bangalore is an infotech hub, Raj was not able to work on iOS apps there. He joined RSG Software in Ranchi, and was soon working on India-focussed iPhone apps such as Indian Railway Light, ATM locator, and the Delhi Metro scheduler. Incidentally, RSG was the first official Apple dealership in India.

WHAT THESE DEVOLPERS have in common is their love for the elegant and seemingly simple iOS. Of course, the money that they stand to make is a definite consideration. That’s why even larger companies that have been developing apps on other platforms are creating space for Apple apps.

Arch Mobile Solutions is a Chandigarh-based app development firm that has seen over 18 million downloads from six game titles on Nokia’s Ovi Store since March 2010. Now, the company plans to launch at least three 3D game versions on iOS devices by the end of 2011. “We could not ignore iOS and realised that Ovi games would not work on the App Store. To catch paid customers outside India, we needed to get on to iOS,” says Tarun Kumar, CEO, Arch Mobile Solutions.

One of the big attractions of developing apps on iOS is the fact that the same app can be used on the iPhone and the iPad with minor tweaks. However, in the case of Android or Symbian, there are several vendors and a range of devices, so an app will have to be modified for each one. “iOS has a more mature model and the platform is not fragmented,” says Ashwin Kandoi, co-founder of Nasik-based Winjit Technologies.

Of course, there are naysayers who believe that there’s more to apps than iOS. “An iOS application requires a different set of skills and strategy. This is difficult for an Indian developer,” says Rohit Dangayach, director (sales), Girnar Software in Jaipur. Shiv Putcha, principal analyst (emerging markets) at research firm Ovum, agrees. “In India, the odds are stacked against developers; the low penetration of iOS and Android devices restricts their growth if they want to survive on the domestic market alone,” he says.

That’s why there are companies like Twist Mobile from Indore, which focus only on Nokia’s Ovi and Android Market. “I do not think the iPhone is going anywhere in India. The entry barriers are very high and our lack of understanding of what a user in the U.S. or Europe would like limits our options to develop applications for that market,” says Virat Singh Khutal, director, Twist Mobile. In Chennai, 28-year-old Jigar Doshi of 3G Simplified adds: “iOS penetration will always be less than other platforms.”

Apple app developers recognise these as valid problems, but have found ways around them. A number of the developers we spoke to did not want to be named as they have “regular” jobs and develop apps in their free time. Many of them don’t upload their apps directly; they work through development companies or intermediaries who promote the app and take a percentage of the revenue.

Other developers work for a company or group of developers, who take projects to create apps for clients. The client is responsible for the intellectual property rights and marketing; the app development company gets a fixed one-time fee. The fee varies, depending on the complexity of the application and time taken to develop it. While a simple app can be created in a few weeks and costs $5,000 or so, a complex 3D augmented reality app can take over a year to build. The margins can be as high as 35%, depending on the cost structure of the company.

“To make good money, an app needs a substantial number of downloads. An independent developer might not have the capability to garner millions of downloads on his own,” says Kishan M. Bhat, engagement manager, Zinnov Management Consulting. Vijay Anand, CEO of The Startup Center, a fund for investing in early stage technology startups, adds that it makes more sense for a developer to spend on tweaking the product than in marketing it, so leaving the marketing to others is a good idea.

None of these problems seem to deter the Apple fan club. Regardless of Apple’s low penetration in India, and the company’s seeming reluctance to enter the market in a big way, the app army marches on.

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