Useful day-to-day information ranging from train schedules, horoscope predictions, games, sports updates or anything else is to be provided for Sri Lankan mobile phone users at the click of a key through a special mobile application Eco –system ‘AppZone introduced by Etisalat and hSenid Mobile. This new system will enable all Etisalat users to download applications that are useful and important for them in day-to-day information sourcing & entertainment, a senior official of Etisalat said.
Etisalat CEO Dumindra Ratnayaka, expressing his views on succeeding in introducing a breakthrough mobile value adding service in Sri Lanka, said, “what commenced as a pilot project in application development has today become a general service to Etisalat customers. AppZone will enable our customers to access an array of applications, be it searching for bus routes, checking for rahu kalaya or checking for a cab listing.” Mr Ratnayaka further stated that since there is very highly evolved techno-culture woven around the mobile phone, it was important that service providers introduce more and more value added services to their customers. “In order to substantiate the entrepreneurial angle of this project we will be sharing 70% of revenue with respective application developers,” he added.
The AppZone portal that was introduced to local developers to start developing mobile phone applications, is now accessible for commercial purposes. Customers can now dial #141# or visit www.appzone.lk to download mobile applications ranging from train schedules, horoscope predictions, games, sports updates or anything else at the click of a key. There is a comprehensive listing of applications and the most significant factor is all these have been developed by local technocrats to suit local requirements.
AppZone is based on the revolutionary Cloud Telco Application Portal (Cloud TAP) developed by hSenid Mobile based on open standards & technologies, end to end service creation and rapid time to market Telco Applications. The state of the art Telco developer portal helps to create opportunities from simple to enterprise applications that can be developed with minimum effort. Dinesh Saparamadu, CEO, hSenid Mobile said “AppZone is Sri Lanka's first ever Telco App Store. We believe this is the beginning of taking our developers to a global Telco application platform powered by hSenid Mobile," he added.
Asanka Gayan, a young technocrat from the University of Peradeniya who has developed an SMS based application enabling users to access island wide train time-route schedules as per the Railway Department, said, “once the idea was in place, the execution was immensely simple. All I had to do was gather the technical background from the online AppZone forum and follow instructions. I was motivated by the challenge of developing an application as well as the revenue incentive! I have no doubt that this experience will be a stepping stone for my future ambition of making it big in the industry.”
The inter-university competition is still on and the grand winner will receive an Apple i-pad from the organizers. Endorsing the success of this breakthrough initiative, Director University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake said, "AppZone covers a wide rage of applications from business to pleasure. Creation of innovative mobile applications is a business opportunity for our undergraduates." |
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