Award-Winning App developer Marketcircle talks to Techvibes

Marketcircle's CEO, Alykhan Jetha (or AJ as he is called by his friends) has been steering the success of his company since he first launched it in 1999 as a dot-com start-up.  And like many dot-coms, he soon found out that he needed to change the direction of his company.  So AJ shifted gears and Marketcircle began developing apps exclusively for Apple products.  First with the Mac and then moving into the iPhone world, Marketcircle has created successful and award-winning small business applications. 

Marketcircle has decided to focus exclusively on Apple products for a number of reasons.  First, the iPhone's OS platform is the best and most simple for users to operate.  AJ calls it, "easy, fluid and intuitive."  With the BlackBerry, developers have to develop apps for various hardwares as well as operating systems.

Many apps have been developed with individual consumers in mind rather than small businesses.  In fact, the most popular one's have had nothing to do with business.  However, Marketcircle has decided to focus (for now at least) on the small business marketplace.  According to various Canadian and American stats, it is the small businesses that are powering most of the economic activity in these countries. 

Focusing on small businesses also has it's advantages:

1. the use of Marketcircle's apps don't require much training at all.
2. no need for large capital investment.

Recently, Marketcicle's Daylite Touch was placed in the top 100 apps according to MacLife (one of America's top Mac magazines).  I asked AJ why Daylite has become so successful and popular.  "Two reasons.  First, functionality and second, Simple User Interaction," AJ responded. One of the most basic things it does is that it solves a very simple problem: namely it helps the user "manage your business projects, contacts, and tasks all in a streamlined interface that feels very native to the iPhone."

AJ continued to list more reasons such as it's intuitive nature, no need for a manual to understand how it works, and it's simple and a joy to use.

Looking forward, AJ sees mobile apps as a "new" battleground, if it isn't already.  AJ expects the App Store to grow from 120,000 apps to 250-300,000 apps by the end of 2010.

You can leave your thoughts below or feel free to drop me a note at karim at techvibes dot com.