A Birmingham music teacher has come up with a stargazing mobile phone app that has topped the download charts.
Andy Weekes, 29, from Northfield, helped design The Night Sky app which uses GPS technology to identify planets and even satellites when phones are held up facing skyward.
Priced at 69p, it has since topped the download charts for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android with the number of users running into the hundreds of thousands. It was developed by the iCandi Apps company that Andy set up in 2008.
“There were similar apps out there, but a few people suggested coming up with a new one as the others were far too cluttered and quite difficult to use,” said Andy, a part-time music teacher at St Thomas Aquinas School in Kings Norton.
“So we wanted to make one that was easier and a lot simpler to use – and that’s what makes it so good.”
He added: “But the success we’ve had with The Night Sky has been gob-smacking. I’ve been doing this for two or three years now and never though it would take off like this – it’s a dream come true.
“But we’re already looking at bringing out a new version of The Night Sky with more functionality and other exciting things that are top secret for now.”
Andy’s firm, with offices in Broad Street’s Quayside Towers and also Rubery, had already enjoyed success with apps such as iLevel and Tweeterena.
“We did pretty well with Tweeterena, but that was nothing compared to what we’re going though with The Night Sky – this is much bigger.”
The success has prompted Andy, a former pupil at Meadows Primary School, Colmers Secondary School and Cadbury College, to go full-time with iCandi Apps.
“It started as a hobby back in late 2008 but as a result of iCandi’s successes I will be moving to iCandi Apps full time as of July this year.”
