SheetCalc reinvents the calculator app into something you might actually use

Around the world, only 12.5 percent of the population has higher than average math skills. Despite this, the calculator app remains an almost entirely overlooked subset of the app market. Look at the the top recommendations (even more here) and a pattern quickly emerges. Apps are either very simple or targeted for physics majors. SheetCalc, an iOS app by developer Minoru Kimoto, has a patented, unique interface that services the largely untouched middle ground.

True to its name, SheetCalc looks similar to an Excel spreadsheet. Thankfully, it is significantly easier to navigate than Microsoft’s notoriously difficult-to-master software.
The user can start calculating anywhere on the sheet. Large rectangles are where you input the basic numbers. Slim rectangles are where you input the functions you wish to perform.

Basic actions like adding and subtracting, as well as more complex functions like excluding sales tax or converting currency are available. The sales tax rate can be adjusted depending on your country of residence and the foreign exchange rates are updated daily. Your calculations can be saved locally, sent via email, or uploaded to Evernote. The extra functions do not sacrifice ease of calculation either. With Excel, functions have to be typed manually, but in SheetCalc one touch is all that is needed.

The user interface is fairly intuitive. A couple of wrong turns in the beginning are to be expected but the app can be mastered within two minutes. Being able to visualize calculations is surprisingly useful. Other apps of middling complexity like Digits or Fusion Calculator are useful but they are missing that visualization element.

SheetCalc in action

From the supermarket to the patent office

The limitations of the prepackaged iOS app is what inspired Kimoto to make the app in the first place. A couple years ago he was at the supermarket buying supplies for a barbecue. He was trying to tally up his costs but Apple’s calculator proved insufficient. Factoring in sales tax and keeping track of the total cost of your purchases is not what that app was made for.

Though he had some experience with app development, it was not his day job. At the time he was a program director for television studio NHK. Kimoto tells Tech in Asia that he worked with a partner company on the design, user interface, and functionality for a solid year and managed to secure a patent for the product in December 2013. With his intellectual property defensible, Kimoto jumped into the business full time.

He is still the only employee and has bootstrapped the project with the exception of some public funding awards. Looking forward, he says a capital injection would be helpful as he add more functions to ShetCalc, prepares for an Android release, and puts some promotional strength behind it.

Kimoto presently has partnerships with several elementary schools around Tokyo. SheetCalc gives teachers another way of developing the mathematical skills of their students, a topic that is now the subject of a research study at Chiba University in Japan.

Kimoto did not share data on downloads but notes that his app ranks at number four in the App Store’s utility category for paid apps.