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Pakistan’s IT sector came in the limelight again, earlier this week when Lahore-based Pepper.pk launched another Blackberry application that became one of the most popular to be downloaded on the RIM App Network. Pepper.pk, a project of Five River Technologies had earlier launched a Photo Editor application using which Blackberry users could snap and edit their pictures as they wished on their phone set.

 

The news of Pepper’s second astounding success was hailed with pleasure in Pakistan’s IT sector. According to a number of people, this proves the fact that the Pakistani IT industry has ‘what it takes’ to make a mark in the global applications market. “Pakistan’s IT industry has come a long, long way… pepper.pk’s laudable achievement proves that not only are Pakistan-based software companies ultra-competitive, they are, quite literally, second to none,” was one opinion expressed on several websites.

 

Pakistan, an emerging market has risen to the point where it is seen as one of the main hubs where work may be outsourced. Neighboring India is another such country whose well-developed IT industry has dominated the global outsourcing scene. According to Naseer Akhtar, CEO and President of InfoTech, “India earns nearly $50 billion in the IT industry’s international market while Pakistan earns only $2 billion.” The figures show, and analysts and businessmen confirm that Pakistan does not have the stable standing in the international IT market that India enjoys, despite the quality of our work being allegedly much better than India’s. However, twice now, in the last four months alone, two Pakistani-made applications not only made it to the most popular Blackberry applications, but also topped the list. Both the applications were designed by Lahore-based Pepper.pk.

 

The first application was a Photo Editor app which allowed users to snap and edit pictures on their Blackberry phone sets. Furthermore, the photo editor application was among the top five selling applications on RIM’s App World and voted the best in December 2010. Now, Pepper.pk developed an application that would help people identify all those contacts who call them on their Blackberry phones. The application, available on RIM’s App World ensures that the phone’s LED screen glows a different, preset color for different contacts. For instance, the LED screen could glow red if the user’s boss calls or texts, but could be set to glow green in the call or SMS is from the user’s spouse, or friend. This app too has made it to the top of the charts in RIM’s App World.

 

However, surprisingly none of the apps developed in Pakistan seem to make their way to either the Google Applications Store or the App Store on Apple. The reason allegedly, is that applications developed in Pakistan, for either for the iOS or the Android are sold out to other countries from whence they make their way to their respective application markets. They are therefore not listed as applications developed in Pakistan, but are taken as applications coming from the interim country. Currently, some of the top applications on Apple are ‘Air Penguin’, ‘Angry Birds’, ‘Stupidness2’, ‘Tiny Wings’, ‘Fruit Ninja’ and ‘Camera+’. The top-ranking applications on Android are ‘Angry Birds’, ‘Death Worm’, ‘CNN App for Android phones’, ‘Robot Unicorn Attack’ and ‘Heart Attack’.

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: do you think that Pakistani developers have what it takes to make better, world-class applications for different operating systems?

 

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