College Kids Aim to Make 52 Apps a Year in South Carolina
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Mobile software startup 52apps has an ambitious goal: create a new application for the iPhone or iPad every week. Just as ambitious: do it with college students in South Carolina, far from the engineering hotbeds of Silicon Valley, New York or Austin, Texas.
The company, based at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, can create an app in five days with “premade programming Lego blocks,” said Chief Executive Officer Steve Leicht, one of three non-students at the company who work for free. That means a chunk of code can quickly add GPS features or the ability to share content on Facebook or Twitter, helping the small team compete with experienced developers.