Can Apps Store spur new generation of tech innovators?

(By Richard Holway 9.30am 2nd July 09) As some of you might have gathered from my last post, I am in Australia for a week visiting my 4 year old grandson. Both his Mum and Dad have Apple iPhones/iPod Touches and he’s very keen on all the games. We worked out that he had around 20 paid for games at an average of A$2 each. A$40 is not much in the scheme of things. But Apple has sold 40m+ iPhones and iPod Touches. From such small amounts has grown a $1b+ industry. 50,000 of these are now available on the Apple Apps Store. Creating a hit Apple App now seems akin to having a Top Twenty single. Seems almost anyone can do it from home.

Today I was sent a link about Owen Voorhees from Illinois (Click here) whose app MathTime has debuted this month at #13. Nothing special about that except that Owen is 11 years old – helped by his 9 year old brother Finn ‘who designed the mathematical symbols in Photoshop’.

I find all this hugely encouraging. I just hope there are some British youngsters getting hooked on producing apps. If you know of any, please let me know. From that we might start to get the tech innovators and entrepreneurs this country needs for its future.