design kids’ apps

Many might say it's no child's play. But two brothers, still in school, have launched their very own mobile applications firm. Sanjay Kumaran is a CEO at just 10 years of age, while his 12-year-old brother, Shravan, is the president of the company Go Dimensions.

Floated last December, the firm has already made rapid strides. Within two months of its launch, the first product - Catch me Cop, a mobile application - was on display at Apple's App Store. And in the next two weeks, there were some 2,000 downloads! No wonder that it drew the attention of cnet.com, the popular website that comes out with lists of popular apps.

Sanjay studies in Class VI and Shravan in Class VIII at a Chennai school. Arguably, they can be considered the youngest chief executives of India. What is their business plan for this fledgling company? "Gaining popularity and earning revenue from advertisements through website traffic," Sanjay said. "The applications we have developed have space for ads. We earned our first $100 through them," he added, beaming with joy.

The proud father of the wonder kids, Kumaran Surendran, 45, is a techie himself and the director of an IT firm. He said his sons are aware that Apple keeps 30 per cent of the advertisement revenue. The boys got attracted to computers as Kumaran used to work from home. "Their curiosity for programming knew no bounds and I decided to channelise their interest. When I taught the elder one, he was barely seven years old and the younger one too joined in. Within three years, they mastered three languages - Cobol, Basic and Objective-C and started to create mobile applications," the proud father said.

The duo has more applications on Apple's App Store - Alphabet Board (March 12, 2012), Prayer Planet (June 10, 2012) and Colour Palette (July 12, 2012). All of them have been downloaded over 10,000 times the world over. Not content with their success, the brothers are currently engaged in an application with an Olympics touch that would arouse interest across the world. Christened as Olympic Thief, they are trying to get it to the stores during the games in London. The duo acknowledged their father's help in reaching such heights. "Initially, dad helped a lot. It was he who groomed us in programming. It is only because of him we have come this far," Sanjay said, with Shravan nodding in agreement.

Kumaran, however, ensures that his wards do not lose interest in studies. "Studies are very important. They should study at least an hour a day," he said. He also admitted some companies had evinced interest in tying up with Go Dimension. Prodded about their future plans, the brothers said they have set their sights on developing tools for education with appropriate applications. "Our aim is to bring accessibility and affordability for all," CEO Sanjay explained. What will they do with all the money they will earn? Pat came the reply: "Invest it to help the poor

Go dimensions

Video Catch me Cop