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Let’s be honest here – iPhone apps are big business for developers who have made compelling, interesting programs.  Many of the success stories have been games made by individuals as part of side projects.  These are folks who get a good idea, act on it and end up with a really successful product.  I recently saw an article in the New York Times (found via NYT Explorer) about an iPhone game called iShoot, where the developers of the game had generated astounding sales numbers like $35,000 in one day (selling 17,000+ copies of the app).  Check out the above linked NYTimes article for more details and the full story.

So it’s not surprise that more and more of these companies are popping up these days with the sole purpose of developing iPhone (and other mobile platform) apps.  I wanted to cover one that was local here in the Boston area, and happens to create really excellent apps that I’ve been rather obsessed playing around with lately.  Raizlabs is a Brookline based company that has created a number of useful, fun and interesting apps:

• VideoUp – VideoUp is Raizlabs’ newest application made specifically for the new iPhone 3GS and its new video feature.  It enables you to take a video with your phone and upload it directly to your Facebook profile.  Users have been saying that the app is really fast.  MG Siegler at Techcrunch also reported recently that Facebook actually helped Raizlabs fix a few bugs to make the app ready for the app store ASAP.  Cool story about a big social network helping out a small startup.  The app is simple to use, login to your Facebook account, select the video, describe it if you want and hit the upload button.  It’s as easy as that.
• WordPopper – This game is totally addictive.  It reminds me a lot of a hybrid Boggle/Frenzic game, where you are given a bunch of letters and tasked to make as many words as possible by touch.  Longer words are worth more points.  As you might imagine, this is one of those games you can lose hours playing.  Give it a shot for yourself – it costs $1.99, but there’s a free version that is ad supported.  Check out a demo here:

• Tip Calculator, Mortgage Calculator – Both useful apps, but don’t have the useful nature of the previous two mentioned (i.e. I don’t use them nearly as often).  Tip calculator is nice for those annoying times you’re at a restaurant with 5 people, the bill comes and everyone wonders what exactly they owe.  Put in the tip %, and number of people and bill total and it spits back the amount everyone owes.  The mortgage calculator is functional and a nicely designed app, but to be totally honest, I don’t think I’d ever consider running mortgage numbers on my cell phone.  If anything, I’d use a web app (or a piece of paper…) – but it’s a good idea.  Both of these apps aren’t one of a kind either, but certainly seem like nest of breed.

Here are some screenshots – VideoUp, Tip Calculator, Mortgage Calculator (L to R):