Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) announced the launch of the 3rd MSC Malaysia ICON programme last week, dubbed ICON3 which will focus on enterprise applications.
ICON3 will provide industrial training to nurture ICON graduates, with a focus on advanced skills, including back-end server integration as well as utilising cloud computing for the usage and development of apps. The ICON programme currently has a pool of 200 developers, and ICON3 will commence with training a specialised pool of 30 to 50 developers.
In conjunction with the launch of ICON3, MDeC also announced several key partnerships that will help to facilitate the growth of the enterprise mobile app ecosystem, with industry players such as Celcom, DiGi, Nokia, Microsoft, Blackberry, ECS ICT Bhd, government agencies such as MAMPU and MCMC, Regional Development Corridors such as Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) and Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and Universities including Swinburne, UTM and UMK.
Introduced in 2009, the ICON programme was aimed at enabling up-and-coming local app developers to create applications and mobile content, particularly those focused on the consumer social and education market.
The first ICON programme, which ran from 2009 to 2010, saw 1,100 individuals exposed to the basic knowledge of app development, out of which 221 developers successfully completed their advanced training in both the iOS and Android platforms. MDeC approved and disbursed financial grants to 60 projects, which saw the creation of 180 jobs as well as the design and deployment of 96 mobile apps. With ICON2, a total of 200 developers were trained, resulting more than 80 mobile apps created and marketed in both the Apple iOS and Android stores.
Commenting on ICON3, MDeC said that this shift from consumer apps to enterprise apps is necessary as the app industry rapidly evolves beyond consumer needs to cater specifically to that of businesses. This is even more apparent with the pressing need for enterprises to streamline and optimise their business operations in meeting the needs of a new generation of skilled workers while also leveraging on trends such as Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) to enable workers to maintain high levels of productivity on-the-go.
MDeC is allocating RM3 million worth of grants for ICON3.
The ICON programme and its subsequent iterations are made possible through the support and funding from Pemandu via the Communication Content and Industry (CCI) New Key Economic Area (NKEA) of its Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
