LAHORE:
A photo editing software developed by Lahore-based information technology (IT) start-up Pepper.pk, subsidiary of Five Rivers Technologies Private Limited, became the best selling paid application for BlackBerry, Pepper.pk said on Wednesday.
Photo Editor, an app that allows users to edit photographs from their hand-held devices, is being sold for $0.99 on the Blackberry’s App World online store.
“On Sunday we found out that Photo Editor, our simple application, had become the most paid for app in the world on the BlackBerry store,” said an elated co-founder Syed Saad Hussain, who had commented about the achievement on his twitter account earlier.
He said that the application had been appearing on the top five list for the past two weeks and by reaching the top spot it had created a huge win for Pakistan’s IT industry. “We have always been operating from Lahore and have strong linkages to the country. We are the first local company to reach the top spot.”
The company, according to Hussain, represents a ‘small garage’ start-up established by Lahore-born Syed Basit Ali, Syed Saad Hussain, Mahe Husain Zehra and Hasan Rizvi, who hails from Karachi.
Currently working with a total of 10 people, the company has already developed around 60 to 70 applications and has entered into a product development partnership with one of the world’s largest smartphone companies, BlackBerry (Research In Motion).
Around two to three million people spread across the world are using the company’s apps, according to the co-founder. “We are a living example of the type of industry that has benefitted the country. We deal with Fortune 500 companies,” said Hussain. “If you have an idea and acquire the basic funding, you can do wonders.”
Hussain said that the government’s restrictions on the use of BlackBerry services had also affected the local market. He explained that the reason for the ban was that data was routed through the smartphone company’s headquarters in Canada and the United States.
He said that this was a short-term solution as the government must look to work with the company and gain access just like the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and India.
“There is a lot of potential in the local industry, there is a lot of untapped market,” said Hussain. “The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) recently announced that the number of cellphone users in the country have crossed 100 million.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 23rd, 2010.
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