Unlockar Apps Private Limited, a mobile start-up based in New Delhi, has launched its maiden application – Unlockar for Android operated smartphones featuring a concept known as uScreen. The uScreen is an intelligent lock screen serving rich media content through its various free and premium channels which can be subscribed at will by the users. The channels include classics like Incredible India and real time updates like news, scores, stock tickers, weather updates, movie reviews, deals and discounts among many others, served directly on the lock screen.

The most interesting feature of the application is the reward points entitled to smartphone users each time they unlock their phone by swiping on the uScreen. The rewards are generally in the form of real money or uCoins, which can be redeemed at the company’s online shopping portal, uShop. Unlockar has partnered with companies like BookMyShow, Freecharge and PayTM to provide the customers with real money benefits for their reward points, starting with cash redemption of as little as Rs 20 per transaction. Also, the uCoins can be used at the uShop to avail discounts, buy products, bid in ongoing auctions and donate to one’s preferred charity or cause. Unlockar is supporting PETA and Akshaya Patra in spreading awareness by redirecting users to the respective causes and letting users donate their in-app earnings and reward points to the preferred charity directly from their smart phones.

“With newer paid applications being developed for the convenience of the users each day, Unlockar is a paradigm shift wherein the users can earn by simply unlocking their android phones. The idea behind the uScreen has been the tap the most premium and underutilised real estate on a mobile device, the mobile lock screen, and develop this space for optimised use”, says Pulkit Ahuja, co-founder of Unlockar Apps.

“Our strengths include easy access to mentors and investors alike, our end-user interaction and intellectual property generation” says Ahuja. The company aspires to be a leading lock screen platform to keep the users socially and locally updated with information. Being a start-up, the company has the scope of evolving and improving in areas like faster scaling and go-to-market strategy. He added that the young and eclectic work culture at the company and the initiatives taken with a sense of belongingness to the task at hand have made the development of such an application possible.

“The Indian Mobile App industry as of today is at a similar stage as the dot-com industry of the US in the late 90’s and early 2000. On similar lines, we are seeing huge investments - in some cases investments in companies that have no defined revenue models – with user acquisition being the industry buzz word as of today”, reckons Pulkit. Talking about his experience in the industry, Ahuja believes that where on one hand some business models are going to take off exponentially, at the same time a lot more may fail miserably - but overall in the long run, the mobile app industry is bound to see a phase of consolidation and a much more significant revenue channel development with a lot of bigger players acquiring synergically matched smaller players.

“Our goal is to get Unlockar on the lock screen of every Android phone in the country” says Ahuja while talking about the future of the company. It aims to become the most distinct application with subscribed content in the Indian mobile industry and then launch itself in the overseas market as well.

Pulkit Ahuja is a MBA from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management and a computer science engineer from IP University. He has worked as a research associate at Standard and Poor's Capital IQ for 18 months. He later quit his job to launch the start-up Unlockar Apps. At Unlockar, he is responsible for the various aspects of technology, ideation, strategising and overseeing the day-to-day operations.