In just 8 months, iPhone app Muslim Pro has been downloaded and updated over 1 million times. Built by Bitsmedia, Muslim Pro helps those practising Islam find out where the nearest mosque is, remind them of the 5 prayer times during the day, and also help them figure out where Qibla is. (Qibla is the direction a Muslim faces when praying, towards Mecca).
Muslim Pro was first released in August 2010, just in time for Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.
In countries like Singapore and places where it is not generally indicated where Qibla lies (unlike Malaysia for example, I’ve seen stickers like these on ceilings in many places), this would be a useful feature.
However, just helping Muslims find Qibla is not something that helps Muslim Pro differentiate itself from the many similar iOS apps out there. The latest version, Muslim Pro 3.2 for iPhone and the new beta version for Android, has been loaded with more features: it includes the Holy Quran in six languages and a Muslim calendar that estimates holy dates. iPhone users can also find out about Halal restaurants and mosques wherever they may be using Foursquare.
The founder of Singapore-based Bitsmedia, French entrepreneur Erwan Macé, kindly gave me a few screenshots of how the 1 million downloads and updates were spread geographically.
The US and France are on par with Great Britain following closely behind.
For the benefit of our readers, here’s the breakdown:
US: 17%
France (FR): 16%
Great Britain (GB): 11%
Singapore (SG): 8%
Saudi Arabia (SA): 7%
Malaysia (MY): 6%
Arab Emirates (AE): 5%
Canada (CA): 4%
Australia (AU): 3%
Egypt (EG): 3%
Bitsmedia is also the firm behind iPhone app discovery app, Frenzapp, with a recently released version 2.0. While Bitsmedia has also developed many other apps, those are mainly client-driven. Erwan tells me that they are about to seek funding to stop developing for 3rd parties but to focus on their “new core business”: developing and publishing their own social networking and entertainments apps, starting with Frenzapp which is about to become their main focus for the next 12 months.
If you’re wondering what Arabic words are on Muslim Pro’s logo, it is the standard “Allahu Akbar” – which means “God is Great” and which most Muslim holy books and scriptures use.
You can follow Bitsmedia on Twitter.
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