What you need to know
- Apple has today highlighted the work of developer Swupnil Sahai.
- His tennis tracking app SwingVision uses iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to help people get better at tennis.
- It has over 10,000 monthly users, and could one day use ARKit to project graphics onto the court.
Apple has today highlighted the work of developer Swupnil Sahai and his popular SwingVision tennis app.
Apple featured the two-time WWDC scholar ahead of its WWDC 2022 conference that will take place in June:
When Apple Watch launched in April 2015, Sahai recognized the potential of a device that would bring intelligence right to a user's wrist. The seed for the idea that ultimately became SwingVision began to sprout. "That sparked my brain right away. I thought, 'If I have a computer on my wrist, I could actually analyze my form and my strokes,'" he says, looking back at the initial notes he made on his iPhone. After teaching himself how to code using Apple's Swift programming language, Sahai enlisted the services of his college roommate and fellow tennis enthusiast, Richard Hsu. What began as a side project called Swing — released as an Apple Watch app in 2016 — eventually morphed into a full-time endeavor, necessitating a team that's since grown to include 12 employees.
SwingVision launched in 2019 and has the backing of some heavyweights including Andy Roddick. The app has a new feature that can let enthusiast players challenge out-of-bounds calls using their Apple Watch. The app has more than 10,000 monthly users, and Sahai "anticipates being able to add graphics right onto the court" using ARKit.
The release not only highlights the impact of Sahai's development, but also the App Store ecosystem that helped his app grow in popularity. At a time when Apple's App Store business model is under pressure, the company writes:
The other major difference: the App Store, which spotlighted SwingVision as an App of the Day in 2021 and brought the app to the feeds of millions of customers instantaneously.
Sahai said that "the App Store gives a platform for small teams and even individuals to reach such a massive audience without having to spend a massive budget on marketing."
The company published a report this week revealing that its App Store helps to fuel the job growth of small businesses, and that its iOS app economy now supports 2.2 million jobs in the U.S. alone.
