Pico Brothers shares recipe for success

MANILA, Philippines - Pico Brothers has become the epitome of success as evidenced by its significant number of apps downloaded since its debut in Ovi Store in May 2009. 

Pico Brothers creates apps ranging from entertainment, utilities and sports. The Flashlight, The Flashlight Extreme and Decibel Meter apps along with 65 others have found worldwide success through Nokia’s Ovi Store. 

Within less than two years, Pico Brothers apps have been downloaded more than 20 million times in more than 190 countries through Ovi Store.

Pico Brothers is an innovative and agile software development company for mobile media. Located in Vaasa, Finland and run by just two guys, Niklas Karlström and Kristian Engsjö, it designs apps and games for Nokia mobile phones and handheld devices.

“Our business model that has contributed to much of our success is to offer free apps with in-app advertising, which constitutes a significant revenue stream for us,” said Karlström, CEO of Pico Brothers. 

“We also implement a variety of guerrilla marketing tactics primarily through social media channels. These efforts have made a big impact and resulted in ongoing buzz,” he said.

Pico Brothers relies heavily on its consumer base, encouraging those who are interested in unleashing their inner inventor to share an idea with it for the next best mobile app. 

It has a dedicated page on its website where users can solicit their ideas. To date, it has received more than 10,000 app requests from more than 100 countries.

Staying true to its consumers and listening to the feedback of the community, in the summer of 2010, Pico Brothers partnered with Nokia to host a contest. It asked consumers to tell what they want to do with their mobile phones, beyond just making phone calls and surfing the Internet. The prize giveaway was a Nokia N8, fully loaded with a variety of Pico Brothers apps.

In the fall of 2010, Pico Brothers switched over to the Qt framework for its app development and plans to work with Qt Quick in the near future along with Adobe Flash Lite. 

The Flashlight Extreme and Decibel Meter are the company’s newest apps built using Qt. For graphics, Pico Brothers uses Photoshop, Adobe Flash for Flash Lite apps and Qt Creator for Qt apps.

“We started out exclusively using Adobe Flash Lite and have since made the move to the Qt framework to develop apps; we required a more rapid approach to producing apps to keep pace with consumer demand,” said Karlström. 

“We also needed a framework that could support more capabilities and performance. We found this in Qt and we could not be happier,” he added.

One of the most popular and frequently downloaded apps is the Flashlight, a flashlight for your mobile phone that comes with seven different colors and an SOS button for those in distress.

This app is multi-purpose — consumers can use it as a nightlight to guide their way through the dark or send Morse code with a simple press of the SOS button. Pico Brothers utilized Adobe Flash Lite to create this app. 

The Flashlight app alone has been downloaded over five million times and is available in more than 190 countries.

“The Flashlight app is super helpful,” wrote one reviewer. Another user cited his actual experience: “I was camping in the woods and got lost on a trail for six hours. As the day turned to dusk and I finally heard my friends, I used the Flashlight app’s SOS signal and they were able to find me.”

Another popular app is the Flashlight Extreme, an exceptionally bright LED flashlight for Nokia mobile phone users. This simple-to-use app also comes equipped with an SOS button. 

Using the mobile device’s camera API technology and flash as the flashlight, this powerful light ensures individuals won’t get lost in dark places.

Tend to visit noisy places or worried about damaging your hearing capability? The Decibel Meter can help. This app uses the microphone feature to turn a consumer’s Nokia mobile device into a useful sound level meter. 

Measuring peak and average sound in decibel (dB), users will know if the noise level around them is too loud and potentially harmful to one’s hearing. According to medical experts, a dangerous sound is anything above 85 dB.

Karlström and Engsjö, the lead developer, said, “We are two guys who work together and have a brotherly bond. We enjoy creating apps that look amazing, are easy to use, and in the end we like having fun while we work.” 

“We will continue to engage our consumer base and leverage Nokia’s Ovi Store, as both have contributed to our huge success in achieving this milestone of 20 million downloads,” they added.

Other popular apps that entertain consumers and make their everyday life easy and mobile device experience pleasant are YouTube Downloader, Clay Shooting, and Pocket Whip.

Apps from Pico Brothers are free to download and are available on Nokia Symbian OS, S60 5.0 devices as well as new Symbian devices, including the Nokia N8. For a complete overview of all Pico Brothers apps, visit www.ovi.com.