Junior High School Boy Who Made World Hit iPhone App in 3 Days

January 8, 2011 - Technology, Videos - Tagged: iPhone, junior high school, Men

iPhone application “Health Calc” calculates the user’s BMI, ideal weight, and necessary calorie intake by the information such as height and weight that the user input.

Since it was released in October 2009, it was downloaded 200,000 times in 6 months, and ranked 3rd for the world free medical category in iTunes App Store.

The developer of the application is a Japanese junior high school boy, Tehu, who started programming when he was 13 years old and made world hit application within one year.

Before he started programming, he was just one of the users of iPhone and Mac. One day he heard that 9 years old Singaporean boy developed iPhone application. The news impressed and motivated him to make application, and then he started programming in February 2009.

Although he struggled with unfamiliar programming language, he didn’t give up because he had a dream to make something for the big iPhone application market. Finally he completed his first application “Setsubun-Eho-Keisanki,” and released in October 2009.

After he learned the ropes, he made the “Health Clac” in only 3 days. He could easily find the formulas online, so he just input them into the application and adjusted the interface and design.

It didn’t hit right away but since a news site took it as a story, the numbers of download rapidly increased; it was downloaded 8,000 times a day at most, which the developer hadn’t expected at all.

The popularity of the application doesn’t make him stuck-up. Tehu says “I think the ‘Health Calc’ succeeded mostly because the developer is a junior high school student. In fact, if it was made by an adult, there is no impact. That is why I want to make something that impresses people even if it was made by adult.”

His dream is to be a programmer. After graduating from a Japanese university, he wants to go to an American graduate school.

Early last year, he added advertisements on the application, and donates all the profit to UNICEF, wishing many people to be happy through the application.

The Health Clac’s Japanese, English, and Chinese versions are available in iTune App Store.