SA developer wins R100 000 for Mxit app

‘Blendit’ comes out on top

A Durban-based software developer has won R100 000 for his Blendit application, written in Python, which was built to run on Mxit.

“Even though the competition deadline was tight, Stranex managed to submit a finished product that was stable, functional and extremely well designed,” says Pieter Nel, MXit’s chief technology officer.

“The application – which runs on both Windows and Linux – is lightweight and not too flashy or intrusive and fits the MXit culture perfectly. Blendit carries all of the regular instant messaging features, as well as MXit specific elements like group messaging, clickable links and file sending.”

“The rationale for the launch of the PC client competition is to demonstrate that innovation comes from the very core of our community. Our philosophy has always been to have MXit users drive our innovation; and the incredible talent demonstrated in this competition proves that we are on the right track by inviting global programmers to participate in our partly open source community,” added Herman Heunis, CEO and founder of Mxit.

“We’re very pleased with the quality of entries received and believe that our first, second and third place winners are more than worthy of their awards.”

Second place winners M Bowes, T Sjoberg and R Baxter submitted a combined entry called MXitC which was written C++. It is a customisable client that allows the user to change the menus, windows and skins can according to the MXit users’ preference.

“The MXit Development portal provides an interface where users can log issues directly with the developers of each application, and in this way we build a community of developers and users who continuously innovate and improve on their software,” says Nel. “MXit’s goal is to continue to support external developers who want to develop applications for the MXit platform and we encourage all keen software developers to get involved and use the MXit Devzone.”