The appliance of digital science to your future

Apr 22 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

With around 40 million iPhone users currently tapping screens around the world, John Hill discovers how developers in the North East feel about the opportunities offered by the popular device.

Lee Hutchinson was lead engineer for the iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for developer Rockstar Leeds. He left with fellow engineer Matt Shepcar to set up independent company Double 11 in late December, motivated by a wish “to get back to grassroots bedroom coding like it was in the 80s and is for a lot of iPhone developers today”.

He said: “Things happen a lot quicker now and we are able to make changes a lot quicker. This is down to the fact that the guys making the big decisions are also the guys doing the work.” The company has offices in Leeds and Durham, and boasts combined experience of 30 years. Its work includes iPhone app Site Survey, which allows site surveyors to measure distances using the device’s camera.

Mr Hutchinson said: “We are concentrating on games in particular and there are plenty of opportunities available from a work-for-hire and also self- publishing perspective.”

While development cost is not as large as for other platforms, there is competition from more than 185,000 apps on the iTunes store.

Never Odd or Even’s co-founder Paul Smith said: “There are probably some fantastic apps that no one’s ever seen because the person who developed them didn’t know how to tell people about them.”

Mr Smith is a former programme controller for Century FM who formed the Newcastle mobile development agency in October 2008 with Jon Nairn. It has produced travel guides for cities such as Vancouver and Turin, developed a programme which allows users to question David Hasselhoff and is working on an app which provides detailed station and timetable information for the Tyne and Wear Metro.

He said: “The mindset of potential clients is a little along the lines of, ‘If we build it they will come’ and that just isn’t the case.

“The first question we normally ask is, ‘Who is this for and why would they want to use it?’. I find myself spending a lot of time telling businesses why they don’t want an iPhone app. Many really want one but don’t know why. I’ve slept better afterwards but I’ve lost a lot of money putting people off.

“We’ve done OK by virtue of the fact that some of our apps have been downloaded more than 10,000 times, which puts us in the top 20% of app developers in the world. It’s earned us enough to pay for a few side projects.”

Mr Smith has also set up App North, a monthly networking night for businesses and developers. The first meeting attracted 30 people from magazine publishers to artists, while the second was held in the Living Room last Tuesday.

He feels that a good area for developers is in apps which allow users to interact with their surroundings.

He said: “If all the restaurants in Newcastle and Sunderland got together, you could provide an app that was a voucher book, so every time you went to one you could scan a bar code on your iPhone and get 20% off your bill.”

Mr Smith is also excited about the potential of the iPad, 500,000 of which have been sold since its US launch three weeks ago.

Whereas Enigma’s Mr Grainger see its potential in delivering video content, Mr Smith believes it could also be useful in helping users digest media such as literature and news.

He said: “If you accept that the future is digital, you have to accept you’ll be reading more media in that manner. It’s a device that makes that easier.

“For me, my laptop is work, whereas this is something you can pick up around the house.”

Middlesbrough-based Fluid Pixel Studios has been developing iPhone apps since it started in August 2007. Kamicrazy, which allows users to guide soldiers through a jungle using a touch screen, has been downloaded nearly 750,000 times since the end of 2008.

Fluid Pixel’s director Stuart Varrall said: “The core skills aren’t particularly difficult for someone with training. It’s doing it well that’s the main challenge. We’ve been developing games and applications since we started. We’ve done everything from games through to photoviewers.” Fluid Pixel works on about five or six projects at a time for various platforms, but says that one prohibitive element is Apple’s unwillingness to support popular design tools such as Flash.

Developers must work within it’s own SDK offering.

Mr Varrall said: “Flash is something we use on other platforms so it means developing costs are higher.

“It means you’ve got to develop everything twice, so it’s prohibitive. You can’t have people on a Nokia phone connecting with people on an Apple phone.

“Of course, the iPhone is getting a lot of attention and it’s a very cost-effective way to attract new people to your brand. The Barclays app was useful because it tied in with their TV campaign. The best use is not to replace the current marketing strategy but as an addition.”

Fluid Pixel shares space in the Phoenix building with Ideonic, which is transferring its popular MirrorMe program to the iPhone. The original Facebook idea won it a 2010 MediaGuardian Innovation Award.

Ideas architect Jeremiah Alexander said: “There’s a lot of information online about the effects of drinking and sun damage but it’s not personal to you. This is actually showing people what they’re going to look like if they continue with a certain lifestyle.

“The iPhone’s built up a strong and technically informed user base. We’re keeping the functionality the same but changing the way people access it.

“The iPhone has the camera built in so we’re expecting people to use that and apply the effects directly on to the phone. Facebook users had access to a mouse and were sitting in front of a computer, whereas the iPhone has a touch screen interface.

“It’s a bit like the old days of bedroom programming. The exciting aspect of it is that you don’t need to have a huge 100-man development team to make great content for the iPhone.”