August 21, 2006 – BOSTON, Massachusetts – Software entrepreneur Phill
Ryu announced “My Dream App” (http://mydreamapp.com) today, a new
competition that invites participants to submit their best ideas for
a killer app. Contestants will compete for a chance to have their
idea realized as a Macintosh shareware application and earn royalties
on software sales, as well as take home one of many Macs and iPods
available as prizes for finalists.
Forty popular Mac developers, well-known bloggers, established
members of the tech media, top-notch UI designers and even Apple
alumni have signed on to My Dream App as guest judges to offer expert
critique during the event. Judges include Digg.com founder Kevin
Rose, New York Times columnist and best-selling author David Pogue,
former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki and Apple co-founder Steve
Wozniak.
“It’s always fun when someone innovates in the computer world. My
Dream App is doing that by turning software design and development on
its head. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all turns
out,” Wozniak said.
Ryu believes that My Dream App will mark a revolution in software
development. “My Dream App will do for software users what American
Idol did for aspiring singers. All it takes to win is a really great
idea, and you don’t even have to be a Mac user,” Ryu said. “We’re
democratizing software.”
The initial entries will be narrowed down to 24 innovative ideas by
the My Dream App development team. Visitors of the site will then
vote to decide which app ideas stay in competition and which get
eliminated until three winning ideas remain. Constant feedback from
guest judges and users will enable finalists to improve upon their
original idea. Each finalist will maintain a blog on the My Dream App
website to document progress.
Experienced Macintosh developers Jason Harris of Unsanity
(ShapeShifter), Austin Sarner (AppZapper) and Martin Ott
(SubEthaEdit) will develop the three winning ideas into OS X
shareware applications, and development will be managed by software
vet and two-time Apple Design Award winner John Casasanta of
Inventive (iClip).
Submissions are open to everyone beginning Aug. 21, 2006 through Aug.
30, 2006. After all submissions are reviewed, finalists will be
announced. The first week of user voting will commence on Sept. 21,
2006.
