First Kiwi developers for iPhone signed up

First Kiwi developers for iPhone signed up

HAMILTON, 8 July 2008 - Kiwis can now join the iPhone application revolution and apply to become registered developers. The iPhone Developer Program initially only available in the US, is now expanding to other countries.

WaikatoLink, the commercial arm of The University of Waikato, are among the first organisations outside the US to be accepted into the program, which coincides with the iPhone release to New Zealand and other countries around the world on 11 July.

Earlier in the year hundreds of iPhone developer hopefuls who had applied to be in the program had their applications put on hold.

Mark Stuart, WaiktoLink’s chief executive, says, “We were thrilled to be accepted into the program. We’ve got a fantastic development resource in the WaikatoLink Hothouse which leverages the knowledge and skills of the University’s research community and its brightest graduates and students. We use the Hothouse to progress a range of innovations from concept through to commercial prototype. The iPhone Developer Program provides a clear path way to commercialise applications as it provides everything needed to go from code to customer.”

WaikatoLink’s Technology Developer Bruce Bowering has just returned from the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco where developers received technical information on the iPhone platform from the engineers who created it.

Bowering says. “The iPhone development kit, through its tight integration of operating system and hardware, and adherence to Apple’s own design philosophies, gives developers the tools they need to produce applications that will provide a great user experience. Apple have put in a lot of work to ensure the development lifecycle is as painless as possible. It opens up great opportunities for New Zealand developers to create the next generation of mobile applications. We really have been very impressed and we are excited about the platform’s potential.”

The new App Store will be available in 62 countries. Developers set the price for their applications and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues.

Within the next few months, WaikatoLink aim to launch applications on the App Store, giving them access to millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers.

ENDS

About WaikatoLink

WaikatoLink Limited is a world class technology development and investment company, with a strong track record in translating research outcomes into commercial technologies. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Waikato, it achieves this by identifying, managing and commercialising the University’s intellectual property. WaikatoLink works closely with industry, investors and researchers to identify and develop market opportunities for new technologies, and plays a key role in University knowledge transfer for economic transformation. Since its establishment in 2002, WaikatoLink has completed numerous licensing deals and established more than 12 start-up companies and joint ventures, which have collectively created more than 138 full-time equivalent jobs and achieved market capitalisation nearing NZ$200 million. Three of its start-ups have already been successfully exited. WaikatoLink’s impressive performance is reflected in its top 3% rating when benchmarked against US university technology transfer offices (AUTM survey data).

www.waikatolink.co.nz

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