Monday, 4th of January 2010 at 03:32:10 PM
Houston is producing an active iPhone Developer Community that continues to grow. Below are just some of the examples of how Houston’s iPhone Application Developers are working to establish Houston as a major Mobile Applications Development Hub in 2010.
Houston iPhone Application Service Companies:
- ChaiOne (ChaiOne.com)
- ChaiOne, headed by Gaurav Khandelwal, has seen a lot of impressive growth and activity in the last year. They secured a contract to develop iPhone applications for the Hearst Corporation, which owns/includes Chron.com. They established a new non-profit called the Mobile Application Community to promote application development (see more below). And they also scooped up two of the more prominent technology evangelists in town in Kelsey Ruger and Marc Nathan to expand their operations. I expect to see a lot more growth out of ChaiOne in 2010.
- Phodder (Phodder.com)
- Even though Phodder was founded in College Station, their CTO, Aaron Farnham is based here in Houston. Phodder has also been very busy in the past year. Phodder just developed the new iPhone App for CultureMap. Phodder is also blazing a trail in the corporate iPhone applications arena.
Houston iPhone Application Product Companies
- Free Time Studios
- FreeTimeStudios.com
- FreeTime Studios was started by Nathan Eror (co-creator of Natuba) and with the support of Hush Labs, and is focusing on creating games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms like Android/NexusOne, and others.
- Their first game SlapHappy! is expected to be released some time in the first quarter of 2010. If you are interested in being a beta tester, contact them here.
- Fore Flight
- Foreflight.com
- App: ForeFlight Mobile (FFM) as an iPhone application for Pilots that offers information on weather, airports, hotels, aircraft registrations, flight plan filing, and more.
- FuzzyLuke
- FuzzyLuke.com
- CEO/Developer: Michael Gile
- App: FUZZYLUKE connects your car diagnostic computer directly to the Internet using your iPhone to let you check fuel consumption, run diagnostics, and get other analysis.
- Social Mobility
- SocialMobility.net
- CEO/Developer: Scott Riggins
- App: Social Mobility Guardian™ helps the parents and guardians of young children manage their child’s key locator information.
Houston iPhone Application Developer Events
- iPhone DEV CAMP – HOUSTON
- Dates: Jan 30 – 31, 2010
- Location: CoffeeGroundz at 2503 Bagby Street
- Speakers: Will include a mix of Local and National Speakers. More To Be Announced Soon.
- Links:
- Web Site: iPhoneDevCampHouston.com
- Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/iPhoneDevCamp-Houston/207773391733
- Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/ipdchouston
- Twitter Hash Tag: #ipdchouston
Houston iPhone Application Developer Groups and Resources
- Houston iPhone Developer Meetup
- Enterprise Mobile Application Community
- A Non-Profit Umbrella Organization that will serve to fund and promote mobile application development in Houston.
- University of Houston – iPhone Application Development Course
- Info on the Course led by Dr. Ioannis Pavlidis
Overall I would say that Houston has as much chance as any other city out there to become a leader in the Mobile Applications Development Space (although I think it will take a lot more of this). It certainly seems that there are a lot of people coming together to make that happen. What do you think? Also, were there any Applications/Companies/Events/Organizations that we missed? Make sure to list them in the comments for this post!
Great post. would be nice to see Houston thrive in this area. Lord knows there are enough out of work Developers with a boat load of talent in Houston.
Also
with mentioning is the NsCoder group, a meetup of Objective C developers that included iPhone development.
Worth mentioning is NSCoders, a meetup of Objective C developers that includes iPhone development.
BigSprocket is another Houston-based iPhone dev shop. We primarily do consulting, helping you build your dream app, and usually as part of a larger strategy, such as a product launch. We’ve also got a couple apps of our own, like Tourneys for iPhone.
CEO/Head Geek: Kyle Davis
Twitter: @BigSprocket
Good to see that Houston Meetup group has lot of potential to contribute!
Nice to be part of it.
30 iPhone & 10 android apps delivered
Mobisoft Infotech
Twitter: @mobisoftinfo
While mobile is certainly the hot growth area currently, I would encourage everyone to consider a slight shift in the paradigm and consider application design for the “anywhere-anytime” app user. I see some fundamental shifts going on in the industry which will soon be demanding attention.
Perhaps broadening the category of mobile to devices which are considered untethered. The mobile category has typically been reserved for cell phone tech. With the recent releases at CES of tablet platforms we will be seeing new uses for mobile touch based computing.
In the realm of handheld gaming I have been astounded that a device such as the iTouch has been successful at displacing some of the Nintendo DS devices.
I’m looking forward to the collective thoughts surrounding this rapidly growing opportunity.
Wow, Houston has a very active developer community! That’s awesome, I am sure they would all benefit from getting a chance to take Titanium Mobile for a test drive.
Titanium allows for the rapid development of cross platform iPhone/Android apps with full native functionality, its open source and free! no Objective-C, no Java, no pain. Check it out!
http://www.appcelerator.com/appcelerator-platform/titanium-architecture/
I was in that University of Houston class this past semester… best decision ever to take that course to finish off my CS degree.. I had tons of fun developing “UH Guide”, an iPhone app for the University.
It looks like we’re going to be interviewed on CW39 on Tuesday to talk about the app, so I’ll be sure to give more exposure to this growing perception of Houston being the next Mobile development hub.
I can’t wait for the iPhoneDevCampHouston meet-up.. the attendee list looks huge already.
Andre
twitter.com/ecito