Interview with the developer of Battery Go! iPhone app

College Kid App recently released their first iPhone app, Battery Go!, to the AppStore. They are three college friends who decided to design an iPhone app over the summer rather than working standard jobs. iPhoneWorld recently caught up with Cameron Banga, one third of the College Kid App team.

iW: Who are College Kid App?
Well, CollegeKidApp.com was founded a couple months ago when myself and two friends wanted to come together for a neat summer job. We didn’t want to work typical 9 to 5’s, so we kinda founded a little studio dedicated to iPhone development. Our first goals as a team were to create at least one app for release in the iTunes Store and then also blog the entire experience online for others who may be interested in the iPhone development experience.

iW: How did you find learning the iPhone SDK? Did any of you have any programming experience before?
To be honest, we had pretty much no experience at all. Our lead programmer, Mike Phelps, had taken one intro level computer science class three years ago. With only that, he was able to pick up the SDK and learn what he needed two for Battery Go! in only about a month and a half.

iW: How did the idea for Battery Go! come about?
Well, when we started out, we knew that our programming/skill set would be pretty limited, so we started putting together a list that built up to about 30-40 app ideas that we thought may be possible given what we could do. We figured we would learn more about the SDK and then pick an idea once we knew what we were capable of. Battery Go! came to me right before bed one night in late May, I was lying down and thinking of ideas when I had a basic outline for the app just pop into my head. I almost initially brushed it off, thinking no one would buy it and it was a stupid idea, but then I really considered it and then called my friends at 2am to tell them I had our big idea.

iW: Is there anything you’re looking to add to Battery Go in future updates?
Yeah, you definitely start to think about updates as soon as you decide that you’re ready to ship. Heck, you have ideas you want to get in your final build but then hold off on due to time constraints or just a problem you couldn’t fix.
When it comes to specific features, I don’t know if one or two stick out, but we just want to provide more value in general to our customers. We want it to look better, be more accurate, have more options, etc. And we have a couple ideas which we’re planning on using in our first major update which I think users will really enjoy.

iW: Talking of final builds and updates, how easy was it submitting Battery Go! to Apple? Did you have any problems?
For us, it may have been a little bit more difficult than it is for most, just because we’d never gone through the process before. We really didn’t know what to expect or how everything worked with the iTunes Store.
All in all, I would say that the whole process went about as well as we could have expected when we went into it. I think it’s just a nerve racking process in general, especially your first time through, because you’re just so excited to get your first app into the store
that the wait seems like an eternity.
However I must say, getting the e-mail from Apple saying that we were approved for sale is one of the proudest moments of my life and definitely one day I’ll never forget.

iW: What’s next for College Kid App? Can we expect more apps in the future?
Yeah, we’re still all students so we have college starting up again in the fall. We’re already looking into ways to keep developing during school though, it’s definitely something we’d like to continue.
So hopefully one way or another, we’ll have quite a few more apps on our resume by the time all is said and done.

And finally, what third-party app on your iPhone is your favourite?
Oh man, that’s a tough one, haha.
Well, I just bought Tiger Woods Golf two or three days ago, and it’s quickly becoming one of my favourites.
It’s just an amazing game and light years beyond what I pretty much ever dreamed capable on an iPhone OS device.

iW: Fantastic, thanks for taking the time to do this.
No problem, anytime man.

You can check out our review of Battery Go! here.

Tags: app, Apple, apps, appstore, game, iPhone, OS, review

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3. Battery Go!: iPhone App Review

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