Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

BYU student-created iPhone app wins $10k
By Philip Volmar
The Daily Universe, BYU
June 04, 2009

An iPhone application created by two BYU students recently won $10,000 in a BYU contest while reaching No. 1 in Apple’s free application chart.

As part of the first BYU iPhone App Competition, sponsored by Omniture, Brian Pratt and Jonathon Johnson created Awesome Ball and won first place in the contest.

“It’s like having a bouncy ball inside your phone,” said app co-author Jonathon Johnson in a news release.

The free application gives users a chance to shake a bouncy ball inside their iPhone in a closed-off room, with the screen serving as the ceiling. The app uses the iPhone’s unique accelerometer device to simulate the bouncing.

“Awesome ball is not a game, but a cool little toy to show off what your iPhone can do,” according to the instructions for the game.

The authors also included the option to customize the walls and floor with pictures from the phone’s photo library and choose from golf balls to exercise balls.

“We wanted to do something unique for the phone,” said Pratt, a Ph.D. candidate in computer engineering.

While the iPhone has only been on the market for less than three years, its popularity has grown with each new generation of the device, selling more than 10 million units in 2008, according to an Apple news release.

“It’s more than just a new phone,” said Jeff Brown, program director of BYU’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. “It’s a new wave of how we do business in America.”

Many students and faculty can be seen talking, tapping and now, “bouncing” their iPhones on campus. Brown said he believes students should embrace the trend.

“It’s important for students to get involved in this wave of technology,” he said.

Brown also said he hopes people recognize the significance of the app reaching No. 1 for at least a week on the Apple iPhone charts.

“They did a good job of creating a lot of buzz for their app,” he said.

The contest was created under the inspiration of Omniture’s CEO, Josh James, a BYU graduate who approached BYU’s entrepreneurship center with the idea for a competition featuring iPhone apps.

“The popularity of the iPhone applications developed by BYU students is a reminder to online marketers that their customers are increasingly going digital and interacting with their brands in new and exciting ways,” said Matt Belkin, senior vice president of emerging business at Omniture, in a press release.

In March, the competing teams uploaded their apps to the iPhone store and were judged on how many users downloaded and ran the programs. Awesome Ball had the most.

iPhone users can download the Awesome Ball app, as well as 11 other applications created from BYU students for the contest, at www.apple.com/iphone/appstore and can view the list of applications created for the contest at the competition’s Web site at iphoneapp.byu.edu.

pvolmar@gmail.comaddthis_pub = 'drgibson';Copyright Brigham Young University 4 Jun 2009

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