Something to make a song and chant about

The Life: Mobile app developers continue to roll out more offerings in an increasingly crowded market. Ramy Al-Kadhi, who launched his first app last month, discusses standing out from competitors.

Apple has announced apps through its store have now been downloaded 25 billion times on to devices such as smartphones and tablets.

In other words, there have been more than three apps downloaded per person in the world through Apple.

And that does not include the billions of additional downloads from competitors such as Google's Android Market.

But while the overall number of downloads continues to climb, so too does the pool of available apps, making it that much more difficult for new entrants in this market to make a profit.

So why bother to try?

Ramy Al Kadhi, who grew up in Dubai and returned to the emirate last month after studying in the UK, sees app development as an entrepreneurial challenge and hobby. He spent £3,000 (Dh17,412) setting up a business to design the Football iChant, a 99 US cents (Dh3.63) app that plays chants and songs the crowds at Premiere League football matches sing.

In future, it is hoped these could be downloaded as ringtones for smartphones or used as a handy guide to follow chants and songs belted out by football fans.

"Each app has three or four competitors," says Mr Al Kadhi.

"The ones we're competing against have recorded chants against premiership teams, but they've gone into stadiums and recorded fans singing - it's very blurry, and you hear people shouting."

To stand out from the competition, Mr Al Kadhi and his business partner, Cornelio Brennand, had the chants and songs specially recorded by voiceover artists. "If it's a Manchester United song, it's done in a Northern English accent," says Mr Al Kadhi.

As unique as he says his app is, Mr Al Kadhi also notes it may not cover his expenses as a university graduate with an economics degree. Only about 300 copies of his app have been downloaded since it launched last month, and he estimates he needs to sell about 10,000 just to break even.

While he is working to expand his app to include versions aimed at fans of football teams in Spanish and Italian leagues, he is also meeting with prospective employers as he seeks a full-time day job.

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