A mutual love of the iPhone has spawned a successful business for Brian Cauble and Andria Jansen, partners at Appsolute Genius. This Birmingham-based company designs applications, better known as apps, for iPhones and other mobile devices, and counts among its clients companies such as McAlister’s Deli and CBS television.

Jansen was Cauble’s first hire when he worked as a software developer for a small Birmingham company called Bayside Business Solutions. After they worked together for several years, Cauble asked her to start Appsolute Genius with him.

“We both had many years in software development and were talking about what would be fun and interesting to break out and do on our own,” says Cauble, a Birmingham native who earned his master’s degree in information engineering management at UAB. “The first thing that came up was how much we both loved our iPhones. We started a pilot project on our own, took a couple of months to learn the software and get comfortable with it, and here we are.”

The pair, who are the company’s only employees, obtained a developer account from Apple, which allows them to develop software for products like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Almost every company has its own app these days. Appsolute Genius (AG) has clients nationwide, but most of their work—Cauble estimates 80 percent—originates in the Southeast. They created an app for McAlister’s Deli that points users to the closest restaurant location using Google Maps and GPS directions; users can also peruse the menu or shake the phone, the latter action signaling the app to randomly select items from the menu to try. The company is currently developing an app for CBS for the “Ghost Whisperer” TV show that includes a “what’s different in this picture”–style game with a time limit and score. AG has also designed Alabama Gameday, an app that counts down to the University of Alabama’s football season kickoff. It provides schedules, scores, weather updates, and even the decibel levels in the stadium (it’s set to release this summer).

The company hasn’t had to do much marketing, Cauble says, but uses word of mouth via social media and networking avenues to garner clients. “I deal a lot with social media and have been able to get some good leads through Twitter, Linked In, and others,” he says.

Developing an app costs AG’s clients anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000, Cauble says. Often clients want to release new features for their apps over time. “They have full license to use anything we give them, but they could essentially take the code and give it to another developer. We have the rights on the background technology—that is our intellectual property.”

Cauble is a fan of Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, and he and Jansen are working on a project for it called My Sous Chef—a video cookbook that will let users view recipes and more. They haven’t signed any agreements for apps for the iPad just yet, but they have had several business proposals for it, “like a high-end kitchen cabinet manufacturer, to show off their showroom, or travel agencies to attract new client bases,” Cauble says. “You’ll hear people saying ‘it’s just a huge iPhone or iPod touch,’ but the screen being so big has really opened up what we as developers can do with it.”
As for the longevity of a business based on an of-the-minute technological device, Cauble says he is not concerned. “I don’t think these devices are going away at all. The format will change, and our company will change with the times. But mobile software development is going to become bigger and bigger and bigger. Today, people don’t question whether or why they need a web site, but they do still with a mobile app. In the future, companies that don’t have a mobile app are going to be left behind.

Source:http://www.bwcitypaper.com/Articles-i-2010-04-29-235511.113121_Byte_of_the_Apple.html