Wine Ph.D., an iPhone app created by Valley resident Brian Pierce, is sold for $4.99 and already has been downloaded 10,000 times. Pierce says he expects to sell 70,000 by the end of this year.
Brian Pierce’s iPhone application,
Wine Ph.D., has Apple Inc. staffers — and wine enthusiasts everywhere — making sure his cup runneth over.
The restaurant industry veteran and former sommelier, along with partner Dave Lauinger, hatched the idea of a virtual wine encyclopedia years ago as something family and friends could use when shopping for the perfect bottle of wine. He wanted to make it a mobile application, and he said the iPhone was the right fit.
That app, which launched just eight weeks ago, was listed as a staff favorite on Apple’s App Store before becoming part of a national ad campaign tagging it as one of the 16 hottest apps of the summer. Pierce already has sold nearly 10,000 downloads of the program at $4.99 a pop, and he expects to sell 70,000 before the end of the year, making his wine encyclopedia a $350,000 enterprise in less than six months.
He’s likely to reach that goal thanks to Apple’s advertising campaign, which features its hot app picks in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times print ads, among others.
Phoenix Business Journal - by Patrick O’Grady Friday, August 7, 2009
