15 iPhone Apps Created by College Students

April 14th, 2009

By Britney Wilkins

Apple’s iPhone application platform has made it easier than ever for hopeful software developers of all types to create a product and bring it to market. This system is unique, in that much of the marketing may be done for them – based on the popularity of the app – and all sales take place in this one centralized location. The net result for successful developers – or those entrepreneurs which team up with software designers – could be relatively easy money. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has resulted in many students producing their own applications in their spare time or, or others, have put their studies on hold. Below is a list of some of the more impressive iPhone applications created by college and university students.

Radio

Jen Pei Li, Raed Shomali, & Chaitanya Ramavajjala are graduate engineering students at USC that came up with the simple idea to allow iPhone users access to over 6300 radio stations worldwide for only $0.99. The application allows the user to search and listen to radio stations through directory and genre search from anywhere in the world. In the first month of Radio’s launch it was downloaded over 48,000 times which made the developers over $35,000. Since its release in 2008 it continues to be ranked in the top 100 applications.

Movies.app

Carnegie Melon sophomore Jeffery Grossman developed Movies.app to connect iPhone users to local theater information. Shortly after his application was downloaded over 250,000 times, he sold the rights to Flixter for a reportedly generous undisclosed amount. Furthermore, this is the first iPhone application to be developed independently and acquired by a larger company. As part of the deal between Flixter and Grossman, he has signed on with Flixter, where he will remain on as consultant while continuing to finish his higher education.

Air Gutar

Air Guitar provides the user the ability to rock on guitar without talent or commitment to play real guitar. The application was co-developed by Stanford University students James Anthony and Edward Marks. This was one of the first applications to be officially published from students who completed the university’s innovative iPhone development course. This application is currently available for download for $1.99. The app continues to be improved and updated, which has resulted in generally positive reviews from users.

Studio App

Released in March 2009, it took only two weeks for this application to top the charts on the iTunes App Store. Studio App is a mobile studio application that allows the user to program music and record vocals through a multi-track platform. University juniors from Atlanta, Hayden Kramer and Wesley Miller, developed this software for people who love music and for those who aspire to be music producers. Studio App has become a top seller in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. Its top ranking peaked at No. 6 on the "Top Music Application" list and was featured in the "New and Noteworthy" section of iTunes. Currently Studio App is ranked No. 17 among paid music applications.

Speed

A first year Dublin City University Student by the name of Stephen Troughton-Smith developed this application, which uses the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to determine the speed at which the user is traveling. In the first six days this .99 cent app was released it was downloaded over 36,000 times. Troughton-Smith continues to develop iPhone apps and has completed five, and is working on a sixth. His completed applications are Speed, Lights Off, Nuker, Doom, and Same Game. His app soon to be released is Chalk, which is a Twitter application that boasts a sleek, easy to use professional layout. Release date: TBD.

Jaadu VNC

Carnegie Mellon graduate student Jahanzeb Sherwani, has created an application which allows the user to screen share and gives full control of one’s PC or Mac from virtually anywhere in the world. Though the price for this application is $24.99 it confirms the progress of the mobile integration of the personal computer. Sherwani is the first Pakistan-born developer to independently develop and release an application via iTunes App Store. Currently, Sherwani is in the process of completing his PHD, and according to an article on Jaadu, he looks forward to further working towards the mobile integration of the personal computer.

iSteam

iSteam has become one of the fastest downloaded applications on the iPhone. Having been released in December of 2008, it has been downloaded over two million times. Kostas Eleftheriou, a young Greek entrepreneur developed this application. In the first month of charging for this app, Eleftheriou made well over $100,000. In the months following the release, iSteam continues to generate substantial revenue. Since hitting it big with iSteam, Eleftheriou has decided to postpone his graduate studies and start an iPhone software development company called GreatApps.

iDiscover

iDiscover is another app to have been developed in the Stanford course. Software students Paul Wilson and Nafis Jamal developed this application to find articles, videos, and other iPhone applications based on the users interests. This application is free, and it continues to have download growth since its release last December. Currently both developers are working towards releasing more applications.

iProcrastinate

This handy little task manager was developed by Michigan Tech student, Craig Otis. Marketed directly to students as homework management software, this free app has proven very popular with high school and college students. This application’s features allow the user to color categorize each task by subject and class. In addition to iProcrastinate being available for the iPhone it is also available to download to your desktop as an application for your personal computer.

Chores, Wordy, Gratuity, & Fright

"Even though I’m still in college. I want writing software for the iPhone and Mac OS X to be my day job," recalled University of Mississippi computer science major Deepak Mantena. Mantena has successfully developed four relatively popular applications since the App Store launched in 2007. Mantena’s software includes "Chores," a to-do list application that easily syncs with your PC; "Wordy," a program that helps expand a person’s vocabulary while on the go; "Gratuity," a program that tabulates tips easily; and "Fright," which offers scary scenes and sounds to entertain the user. Chores costs $4.99 and the others are available for $0.99 cents each. In addition to releasing these four applications, Mantena has started his own software company called TapeShow. In doing so, he hopes to continue to produce high quality applications that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Spacewalk 3D

Robb McMahan, a software engineering major at Texas State Technical College has developed an space-themed game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game is unique because it is one of the first to be released that is played through the first person vantage point. McMahan is also in the process of creating another first person game that details the adventures of an underwater scuba diver. This first person game retails for $1.99 in the App Store. While this game has not made McMahan an overnight millionaire, he continues to develop iPhone applications at night while attending school during the day.

Trace

Trace is a platform game for the iPhone that puts the user in total control of the gaming environment. In this game, the user needs to travel from the starting point all the way to the goal by drawing a path to travel along. This application was independently developed by brothers Kevin and Taylor Calderone. When asked in an interview why the brothers released this application for free, Kevin responded, “I didn’t see this as a get-rich-quick scheme, I saw it as a good place to start my career. We are both college students, so a career in this is the ultimate goal.” Trace has boasted over 60,000 ratings on the App Store since its release in October of 2008, and has garnered an average rating of 3 ½ stars.

Awesome Ball

awesomeball

According to its developers, Awesome Ball is not a game, but rather a fun time-killing application. Regardless, it is currently ranked number one as the top downloaded free app on iTunes (as of April 14, 2009). College students Jonathan Johnson and Brian Pratt came up with the concept for this application to utilize the iPhone’s real physics capabilities. Having just been released in March of 2009, both developers agree they want to continue developing software for the iPhone. The real physics concept for a time-killing app has proven popular, but it remains to be seen how long this app will stay on top.

iStanford

Stanford University Juniors Kayvon Beykpour and Aaron Wasserman have developed an application for the iPhone that allows fellow students to better utilize campus resources. Students who download this app are able to view a campus map, find contact information for faculty members, pay their tuition, add and drop courses, and stay on top of school sports. Because of the success of this application, Stanford University has added a course in iPhone application development. Though not every college student goes to Stanford, the developers have plans to expand the software to include other universities. Following the success of this app, Time Magazine writer Josh Quittner posed this question in an article, “Can iStanford take on Facebook Mobile?” Time will soon tell.

Tris

Noah Witherspoon, a college sophomore from Atlanta, created the game Tris as a free homage to his favorite game Tetris. Though it was one of the most popular free applications when it was available with over 500,000 downloads, The Tetris Company made Witherspoon take Tris down due to copyright infringement. Witherspoon believed he did nothing wrong, but as a poor college student with limited resources he was unable to fight the Tetris Company. Though he did not make any money from his venture, he said he enjoyed the process of developing a popular game and looks forward to creating more in the future.

Did you enjoy this article?

Leave a Reply

Categories

Blogroll

Online Colleges Database

College Resource Articles