Popular photo-editing app Instagram has been on iOS since inception but according to CEO-founder Kevin Systrom, the app may soon have an Android app that may be “better” than the original iOS version. He said this during the annual SXSW conference that brings together mobile technology firms from across the US to showcase their latest technologies.
Instagram has been a run-away success taking up 1 million users in its first three months since launching in October 2010 and that number has grown to 27 millions users to date. The company, which only recently started hiring, has only 9 employees up from three about six moths ago.
This tremendous growth has attracted the usual VC attention with rumours flying around that the app company may be about to land $40 million in VC funding, something that could take the company’s valuation north of $500 million. The company broke the startup cookie jar by creating an interesting yet novel photo editing system that ages photos without any technical input required on the user’s side.
This same phenomenon is what has been exploited by jeans makers who learnt how to artificially age jeans as aged jeans are a huge fad. Instagram picked up $7 million in funding barely 4 months after opening its doors and is today one of the most downloaded apps in the Apple app store. The app is however not available in Android, the release of which could see user numbers double or triple when the Android app is finally launched.
