"Daily Horoscope" is a part of Sri Lanka's biggest App Revolution!

I’m Navin Dhananshan, a second year software engineering undergraduate studying at Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT). When I got to know about AppZone, which is launched by Etisalat together with hSenid Mobile, I was very interested and eager to put my own ideas into practice. That was when I came up with “Daily Horoscope”.

“Daily Horoscope” is a SMS based application where the registered Etisalat users will be provided with their daily horoscope depending on their zodiac sign. The horoscope is provided by one of the well known astrologist in Sri Lanka. I found that such an application would be very helpful for anyone in order to get a snapshot how the day ahead would be like.

AppZone is targeted towards the university students. There were four workshops held at APIIT which were presented by the AppZone team.

The simulator and API given by the AppZone to develop applications made it easy to put my application on live because the API totally handles the outgoing and incoming SMSs so that we only need to invoke some methods. The server is provided with 1 GB space with no charges, so that we do not need to spend extra money on putting the application live. The hSenid mobile forum also helped me a lot whenever I came across doubts and to overcome them. Apart from the forum the hSenid developers also helped me in many other ways.

Though the money factor was very convincing and motivating, the major reason for me to develop my application was the pride and self satisfaction that I would gain to see my application being used by people.

I would say AppZone is the ideal way to be an entrepreneur, because AppZone can totally change your life if you have a great idea. I would like to invite all the developers especially university students to take this as an opportunity and try to take the maximum out of this.

Register for AppZone Mobile Applicatition Competition today and stand a chance to win an iPad. They are giving this opportunity specially for the university students.

Who's on their way to win the iPad??

Analyze the statistics....and look who's on the track....!!

Get on board...start developing applications...and stand a chance to win an iPad!!

AppZone Mobile Application Competition has extended the dead line to 28th of November!

In order to get qualified for the Intra- University Competition your university has to come up with at least 7 apps.

Register Now!!

UniverSL Group in Appzone app revolution

UniverSL Group is formed by three undergraduates of the University of Peradeniya, faculty of Science. Three of us; Roshan Gunathilake, Namal Wanninanyake and Devmal Nilanka Handapangoda are also work with UniverSL Software http://www.universlsoftware.com/ as web developers and graphic designers.

We had the interest in developing mobile applications as well. But we never thought we would develop Telco applications such as the ones based on SMS because of the difficulties in finding servers and lack of technical resources. But then we came across AppZone which was launched by Etisalat together with hSenid Mobile. We were able to participate in their first introductory workshop at the 1^st mBillionth South Asian Conference and Workshop in June on Mobile Content and Application Development for which both Etisalat and hSenid Mobile are strategic partners. There they introduced the Telco Applications Platform with a state of the art Telco Developer Portal which includes various resources such as simulators etc to develop messaging services very easily.

We were quite interested in developing an app and hosting it in the Platform. So we started developing an application and named it as COLOMBO GUIDE, which provides a complete set of information of about 200 important places in Colombo which not only includes their addresses and telephone numbers but also the bus routes to follow. 

We attended all the sessions they conducted and worked with them to make it this success. The AppZone team was always ready to lend us their helping hand whenever we had issues. While we were in the process of developing our app they announced the AppZone Mobile Application Competition. It was a great incentive for us to submit our application and participate in the competition.

The boost we got by developing and going live on AppZone with our first app made us move into developing even more applications. With the dedication and assistance given by the AppZone team we found it easy to work on the Developer Portal and the SDP Simulator. The implementation of the app is almost nothing if you have the right concept. Coming up with a cool concept which is highly demanded by Sri Lankan citizens is all what you need. 

If Etisalat and hSenid Mobile didn’t set the stage for us to develop, go live and feel the excitement of this revolution, these concepts will remain as just concepts forever. We would like to thank Etisalat and hSenid Mobile for their excellent commitment during this period conducting several extremely useful developer sessions.

Fellow Developers don’t hesitate to face challenges and experience new things…so come and be a part of the app revolution. Feel the exhilaration with AppZone!

Roshan Gunathilake

Namal Wanninanyake

Visit: http://apps.appzone.lk/

"Train Traveler" just went live on AppZone.lk

I’m Ishara Asanka an undergraduate of University of Peradeniya-faculty of Science. Coming across the opportunity of AppZone I came up with the simple idea to develop a SMS based application which is useful for the people who travel by train and I named it as "Train Traveler". Simply this application allows the users to get the train details/departure and arrival time of the trains based on their travel. 

AppZone is specifically targeting on the university students who are doing software development. They conduct developer sessions almost all the universities island wide. That’s how I came across this immense opportunity. AppZone Team came to University of Peradeniya and conducted a developer workshop and couple of lab sessions for the students of Science and Engineering faculties.

Their explanation on the value/the market potential for the SMS based application in Sri Lanka and the revenue sharing aspects motivated me to come on board and develop an application. Even though there were some minor difficulties initially the user guides and sample applications that are provided in AppZone.lk site made them all clarified for me to go forward. The assistance and the guidance given by AppZone team by conducting lab and focus session were really helpful for us to proceed without getting stuck at any point.

AppZone Team is willing to give us hand in every possible way. They have a developer forum which plays a big role. You don’t have to be a professional developer to build up a small SMS based application besides Aventura Platform takes care of all the backstage activities. You only have to have a little knowledge in programming and the interest to develop.  I must also mention that the AppZone is a great opportunity for all the Sri Lankan university students who are doing development provided by hSenid Mobile and Etisalat.

As an undergraduate I would like to tell all the other university students to get the maximum use of this opportunity. Consider this a lifetime investment. Isn’t it great being a university student and to get a decent amount of cash at the end of the month by doing nothing? Think for a minute and come up with a cool idea..and make the investment!

Visit: AppZone.lk / http://apps.appzone.lk

"mPoll" and "Yalu", Two cool apps on appzone developed by a bunch of students of University of Kelaniya

 I'm Arunoda Susiripala, lead developer behind the “mPoll” and “Yalu” projects. We are a group of students from University of Kelaniya following the degree in Management and Information Technology (MIT). Myself and the other groups members; Tharaka Wanigasekara, Prasad Hewage, Chinthaka Senanayaka, Ranga Madushanka and Tharaka Ranwatta worked hard together to make this project a success.

mPoll: is a mobile polling/voting platform which runs on "etisalat" mobile network in Sri Lanka. Simply, mPoll allows you to run a SMS based voting system which is heavily used in the reality shows these days. And it includes a state of the art web application (http://mpoll.biz ) which allows moderators to run and monitor polls without any hassle. Meanwhile it allows any "etisalat" subscriber to participate with any poll as they normally do with those reality shows.

Yalu: is a new and user friendly chat application where you can completely focus on chatting while it'll automatically match a partner to you. Yalu comes with a simple registration process; no nickname, age or gender required. Just say "hi" and you'll get a partner to chat. If you done with him/her you can either select another one or say "bye" to yalu.

All you’ve got to do is;

• First register with yalu - send "REG yl" to 4499 
• Then - send "yl hi" to 4499 you'll discover what to do next. 
• Anytime you need a help - send "yl help"

mPoll and Yalu were just two ideas in our minds and it became a reality because of AppZone.lk (mChocie Aventura Platform) which is a great invention of hSenid Mobile Solutions. It allows us to focus on the application logic and just ignore underline complexity behind these sms/mobile networks. Aventura platform provides a simple API to send and receive messages and all these magic built around it.

Another factor which motivated us to do this is the “revenue sharing process”. Etisalat is willing to share 70% of the profit they make from our applications. And there is no any startup fee or any registration fee to host an application on the Aventura Platform. Not only that we never need to worry about the infrastructure as well, because they are kind enough to provide decent set of infrastructure to host our application.

Appzone.lk is going to make a big difference in Sri Lankan mobile application market. I would like to take this as an opportunity to invite all the DEVELOPERS out there and specially the university students who are doing software development to be a part of this app revolution and make use if this great opportunity.

Group Members:

Tharaka Wanigasekara

Prasad Hewage

Tharaka Ranwatta

Chinthaka Senanayaka

Ranga Madushanka

Quick Math on Aventura Platform....

Harsha Sanjeeva Siriwardane- 1st year student, BSc in IT- SLIIT Metro 


"I’m still in the 1st year of my degree I did not have an in-depth knowledge in developing a SMS based application even though I have a fair knowledge in JavaME and have created small applications.

When I first got to know about AppZone from its Facebook fan page I thought it is all about JavaME mobile applications. But after getting to know that it is about SDP based applications such as SMS I was interested in learning SDP Application Development.

At first I came across some difficulties and had no idea on how to work with the simulator and things like that. But the sessions and the assistance given by the AppZone Team was really helpful for me to build up my application successfully.

Usually all the citizens in Sri Lanka cannot afford high end Java Enabled Mobile Phones such as NOKIA N73, Java/Symbian OS enabled phones. But most people can afford a basic phone that has SMS, MMS facilities. That is what AppZone is looking into - provide an open developer environment to create apps for the diverse mass market."



So I came up with an idea to develop a simple scientific calculator that can be used in any mobile phone that has the SMS facility. I named it as “Quick Math”. Following are the basic functions of my application;

1. Basic Mathematical Operations
2. Trigonometric Functions
3. Exponential Functions
4. Logarithmic Functions
5. Scientific Equations
6. Number System Conversions
7. Currency Conversions

You can read more about my app on my Facebook Fan Page. I believe this app will be very useful for all the O/L, A/L students and also the university students who are in the Math and Science Streams.
I’m delighted to say that I’m of the very first to go live with my application on AppZone. Had not it been the easiness of Aventura Platform and the assistance given by the AppZone Team I’m still at the starting point. I only had to concentrate on the cording part. Rest was all taken care and managed by the Avnetura Platform.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Etisalat and hSenid Mobile for giving us this valuable opportunity to enter into the market as young entrepreneurs.


The market potential is very high when it comes to SMS based applications as almost all the people can afford to use a mobile with SMS facility and also to send a SMS. You only have to come up with a catchy idea and do a little bit of codling. Aventura will be taking care of the rest.
Take the first step to become an entrepreneur. You only have to deploy your application as the first investment. You’ll be earning a lot in no longer.


So I would like to invite all the industrial developers and university students to join this app revulsion and feel the excitement. Be an Entrepreneur!

AppZone.lk will be launching soon...!!

Etisalat and hSenid Mobile laid the foundation to open up a new breed of entrepreneurs amongst local application developers enhancing their presence in the region by launching the Sri Lanka’s first ever SMS based mobile application platform.

AppZone.lk proudly presents the platform along with its SMS based applications which are purely developed by Sri Lankan university students and industry professionals.

Listed are some of its applications....

SMS HANGMAN: a word game to compete on their knowledge on vocabulary. Users are required to correctly identify a randomly selected word.

LOVE CALCULATOR: Match your real love. Love Calculator will send a reply with the matching percentage.

NEWS ALERTS: Get news alerts rom Daily Mirror, Ada Derana, Hiru FM, Gold FM, Virakesari, Sooriyan FM and etc.

CRICKAIMOBILE Subscribe and get the cricket alerts.

                              

BusR: Get the bus routes.

                                

Find more perfect apps….in Sri Lanka’s largest collection of telco apps.

Visit: apps.appzone.lk