Emphasising the growing importance of India in the global applications development eco system, Joseph Landes, General Manager (Developer and Platform Evangelism) Microsoft India on Tuesday said he believes that the next breakthrough application will come from India.
“I believe that the next big app is going to come from India. It is going to happen. There is a lot of good work happening in the country. For someone to create the next ‘Angry Birds’ or ‘Cut the Rope’ or ‘Instagram’, it is going to happen in India…because anyplace where you have such big base of developers…you are bound to get a lot of good ideas. It is only matter of time,” Mr. Landes told The Hindu .
He added that more than 10 per cent of the applications in the worldwide Windows Store are created by developers in India. There are over 2,45,000 application available on the Windows Phone Store.
“From numbers perspective we are seeing a lot of enthusiasm,” he said, adding that whether it is a professional developer or “hobbyist” developer, there is a lot of excitement in this segment in India.
He, however, added that like it takes a lot to get that one breakthrough application.
“That is not unique to India. It depends on having a great idea, being a good software developer, presenting the app in a way that people can understand and use it, and probably a fun factor. That is my perspective of eco system here. I think it is strong and will keep getting stronger,” he said.
Meanwhile, the software giant today announced the winners of the India leg of its annual application competition — Imagine Cup — which saw participation from 60,000 student across the country. While Team Dexters won in the Innovation category; Team Seven Summits won the gaming category and Team Untraceable0208 won the World Citizenship category.
One of these teams will now represent India in the worldwide finals in July in Seattle and compete for a $50,000 prize.
“The Imagine Cup facilitates a culture of innovation where teams from across India are given an opportunity to take the first steps towards becoming successful tech entrepreneurs,” Mr. Landes said, adding, “I am really rooting for the India team to win big at this year’s global finals.”
