Roughly 19 percent of people using a wireless device on campus connect with an iPod Touch or an iPhone, according to the blog of David Morton, the UW director of mobile communications, and soon they will be able to download a free UW iPhone application to meet their campus-life needs.

“The basic application, which we hope to launch by the beginning of fall quarter ... is going to be a mobile application that is native to the iPhone but also optimized as a Web application for other smart phones,” said Harry Hayward, director of electronic media and special programs for the university.

A contest that was recently held to name the new application received more than 800 entries, and the results are expected to be released around Aug. 15.

The project has been a collaborative effort between multiple groups on campus that stemmed from a conversation with UW President Mark Emmert earlier this summer.

“This has been put together really in the last four weeks, so it’s been a very quick timeline,” Morton said. “We responded to a request from President Emmert about an iPhone application.”

While the concept for a UW iPhone application is not new, funding was not previously available for the project. After discussions this summer, however, a budget was allocated to contract with a company to develop the program. Cost estimates for the project were not made available to the media at the time of this publication.

The company, Terriblyclever Design, produced an iPhone application for Stanford University that was released in October 2008 and has since created similar applications for Duke University, Texas A&M University, the University of California, San Diego and other institutions with their MobilEdu program.

The company was recently purchased by Blackboard Inc. for roughly $4 million.

Terriblyclever was created by two Stanford University students who worked with their school to produce iStanford. No student involvement has been reported in the development of the UW application at this point in time.

Universities can select from a number of subapplications to include in the program, and the UW application will feature a campus map that can search for buildings and pinpoint the user’s location, an athletics component with updates and game information, UW wallpaper options, videos from UW iTunes and YouTube, a course catalogue, a campus events calendar and the UW directory.

The application will have a mobile Web capability for users without iPhones that will contain similar information, but full versions of the application for other smart phones are something the university hopes to develop in the future. Other prospects for coming years include a possible enrollment feature that would allow students to register for classes on their mobile devices.

Morton said the application is one of several current developments in mobile technology on campus.

“Mobile access and mobile technology are key to the university and the students,” Morton said. “Rather than just be consumers of mobile technology, we set out to form some deep strategic relationships with ... AT&T and T-Mobile. They are investing $2 million in coverage improvement on campus.”

The increased coverage is expected to take effect this fall, and as of several months ago, students have been able to receive 10 and 15 percent discounts off their bills from AT&T and T-Mobile, respectfully, as a result of the new partnerships.

Students can expect the new iPhone application to be available on iTunes roughly around the time they purchase their football tickets this fall.

“We want it in place before fall quarter and ideally the football season,” Morton said. “We do think that a lot of alums and fans will use the application.”

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