KUALA LUMPUR: Ker Jia Chiun was still a student when he and teammate Tan Jit Ren took part in a competition last year that challenged contestants to design new mobile applications in 24 hours.
Today, they are proud owners of mobile apps company Encubic Sdn Bhd. They won the US$10,000 (about RM32,300) grand prize at the 'Malaysia Developers' Day', a platform for new mobile apps developers to get exposure and develop connections needed to venture into the industry.
"Currently, we have some projects for our clients as well as our own projects. We use the money that we won last year for funding purposes.
"Our lives have changed dramatically, thanks to the exposure that we gained through the competition," Ker, 23, told Bernama.
The 2014 event will be an expanded affair known as the 'Malaysia Developers' Day-Asean Edition', part of the inaugural KL Converge! 2014 - a multi-platform creative industry conference scheduled for Sept 17-19 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here.
About 200 participants from 10 Asean countries as well as China, India, Japan and South Korea are expected to take part in the competition.
The event is jointly hosted by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and American telecommunications corporation AT&T.
The competition, carrying the theme 'Building a Digital Ecosystem', has three categories, namely Best App for Community Involvement, Best App for Smart City and Best App for Commercialisation.
Ker's team wowed the judges at the 2013 Malaysia Developers' Day with a mobile application called 'Perks' that provides information to users about sales or promotions.
Giving tips on how to come up with a winning app, he said mobile app developers should focus on user experience. He noted that many developers had great ideas but failed to ensure smooth user experience which stood out from the rest of the field.
"For example, Instagram, a popular and successful app, allows for a slick and smooth user experience," Ker noted.
He said it was this matter of how easy users got what they wanted when using an app that determined how successful an app would be.
At the Kuala Lumpur event, teams which come up with the best app stand to win prizes totalling more than US$15,000 (about RM48,450) besides 12 scholarships for online software training to empower the next generation of innovators in the region.
The winning team of each category will get to present its app at the KL Converge! Gala Dinner on Sept 19 for a chance to win the US$10,000 (about RM32,300) grand prize.
More information on the contest can be obtained from the event's official website, mdd.skmm.gov.my. Those interested can register at soc.att.com/MYDD2014.