Forum Nokia: Enabling Developers Date:   Sunday , January 09, 2011 It is an era of unprecedented of growth for smartphones with 62.4 million smartphones having been shipped globally in second quarter of 2010. It is an era of unprecedented mobile connectivity with people using their mobiles to access email, IM, VOIP, and social networking sites. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, in the next four years, number of people accessing the internet from their mobile will be much more than those accessing Internet from their PCs or laptops. It is an era of unprecedented device convergence from maps, games, photos, camera, video and everything else coming to one single device. It is an unprecedented era of adoption of the apps. Analysts predict that by end of 2012, 50 billion apps will be downloaded globally. These statistics bring color a rosy picture for the mobile market globally. And the case in India is no different, the future looks equally promising. At 15 million mobile users being added monthly, the Indian mobile industry is hot on the radar of OEMs, operators and mobile entrepreneurs. The mobile industry has always been the biggest driver of entrepreneurial ecosystem in India, earlier with Mobile VAS (example OnMobile, mCheck, AdMob) and now a bigger push seems to be from Mobile App development. The app development is one area which has hooked every one from an individual developer to a startup to an established mobile solutions company. With a plethora of platforms like iPhone, Andorid, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows CE, Palm, MeeGo, the playground is wide open for Indian Mobile developers to test their skills. One of the first entrants in the Indian market a decade ago, Nokia continues to rule the mobile handset market with a 49.2 percent hold in terms of revenue share. And with its global developer community and support program, Forum Nokia, the company ensures that its reach across the developer community in India is as wide and in depth as it is with the consumers. The fact that India is one of the top five markets for Ovi, it is understandable why Nokia is bullish on the developer community here. And ensuring this is Sunil Rao, Head of Forum Nokia in India. Of the 62.4 million smartphones shipped globally, Nokia’s market share with its Symbian OS stood at 43.5 percent followed by others. Its Ovi store today clocks 3.5 million downloads a day. Though it is comparatively behind world’s biggest app store, Apple iTunes Store that has over 300,000 third-party applications available on it and has hit 7 billion download mark as of October 2010, Nokia is not perturbed. “We are not chasing numbers of total apps downloaded or available in the store but rather empowering the developers,” says Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Forum Nokia & Developer Community. Engaging the Developer Community In just a few years of its launch, Forum Nokia has managed to quickly grasp the interest of developers across the world, especially India. To actively engage with the developer community, it runs a multitude of programs, the major one being “Calling all innovators”, a global developer competition that was launched in 2008. In the first year, the forum saw almost 1,000 developers from 57 countries participating in the competition and competing for a cash award of $40,000. The following years saw close to 2000 submissions from over 85 countries competing for the prize purse of $250,000. In all the three years, Indian developers put in a spectacular show, some of whom went on to grab top awards. 'Hackathon’ is another such program where Forum Nokia called for developers to create an app based on ideas submitted from users all over the world, in 36 hours! 13 professional developers from around the world worked through 36 grilling hours to create real applications for the new Nokia N8 using the Qt framework , based solely on ideas submitted by consumers during the Nokia N8 Make My App contest. One of the winning app ideas at the 2010 Hackathon was by Revathi Sreedharan, a 29-year-old software engineer from India. The Toddler Tutor app, a voice-based interactive teaching aid app for toddlers, ultimately created by Spice Labs bagged the third position. The company also holds an annual developer conference in India. Aimed at bringing together attendees from across India to learn, share and explore the latest in application and content development, integration and distribution opportunities for Nokia devices and services, the forum enables developers to utilize the potential of Nokia’s Ovi Store by ensuring easy access to publish applications and content to millions of Nokia devices. The conference further helps developers acquaint themselves with dynamic technology platforms for creating truly compelling user experiences, equipping them with new skills, new connections, and new ideas to create future technologies. The conference also has information sharing sessions by Industry, Business and Technology experts. “The convergence of mobility and the internet is creating unprecedented opportunities to create innovative mobile apps that transform the way we live and access information. The Indian developer is uniquely positioned to leverage this opportunity. Forum Nokia is excited about partnering with and supporting this vibrant community of developers to find success not only in the Indian market but also in the markets worldwide. Conferences like this will be the first step in creating a highly collaborative ecosystem that will grow and thrive by sharing best practices and setting a high bar for innovation,” says Kochikar. Other programs include Forum Nokia Launchpad, a program designed to accelerate mobile application development for companies and individual developers in order to elevate their business visibility through Ovi store;Forum Nokia PRO, an invitation-only program for companies and Nokia growth partners currently working with it; and Forum Nokia Champion, a recognition and reward program for top mobile developers from around the world. With its venture fund arm Nokia Growth Partners founded in 2004, the company offers growth-stage fund to mobile startups across U.S., India, China, and Europe. The forum also works closely with the local developer communities like the Mobile Monday in India and actively supports several mobile development events including the SiliconIndia Mobile Application Conference among others. Apart from the events, the company is also actively engaged in simplifying its developer platform and recently its new Qt (pronounced as ‘cute’) SDK (Software Development Kit) for developers. This software makes it simpler and less laborious for developers to create an app by reducing the number of lines required to write a code by about 70 percent. “Mobile Applications is making its way to be an inseparable part of a mobile users life and it is this that will drive the next wave of mobile entrepreneurship. At Nokia, we do not look at app development as a technology differentiator anymore but rather our focus is on understanding the challenges from a developer stand point and in return help them understand the facts, feelings, interactions and problems that a consumer may potentially face and the role of all the stake holders in the value chain. At the end of the day, we want to empower every mobile app developer and make him realize the opportunities that are out there for him. This is what Forum Nokia is all about,” explains Rao. Ovi Store: What is in store for the Indian Developers? The OVI store is the ultimate Mecca for the developers working on the Symbian platform as it decides the fate of an app. In order to make it developer friendly, the company has ensured that the entire engagement process is hassle free and the user friendly. Also it has been proactive in increasing the revenue margin for developers, for example in Singapore, in carrier-run app store, the mobile operator takes 50 percent of the total earnings each time an app is purchased and billed through the telco. While developers take the remaining 50 percent, their cut has to account for bad debt and local sales tax, resulting in lower revenue margins overall, he said. Nokia, however, has “simplified” its revenue-sharing system to assist developers who might not have the experience of dealing with such billing complexities. This system, which the Finnish handset maker describes as “flat-rate revenue share”, ensures developers take home at least 60 percent of the gross price of an app even after local sales tax has been deducted. “With this program, developers stand to benefit from (receiving) over 50 percent more revenue share (compared to a carrier-run app store),” explains Rao. Besides touting potentially higher revenue streams, Nokia has also been enhancing its “ultra-local” strategy to create additional value for developers. This strategy leverages the company’s global marketing reach to bring local apps to an international audience as well as increase the visibility of local apps according to the user’s location. Nokia has implemented location-based features into its Ovi Store to help mobile users discover locally relevant apps much easier. This is done through the company’s TopApps tool which will push local apps to users based on the country they are in. Ovi Store, which is preinstalled in Nokia devices, will also showcase a “local apps” tab to improve the app discovery process. For an easier billing purpose, Nokia has inked partnership agreement with 91 telcos in 27 markets to introduce operator billing mechanisms in the Ovi Store of these markets.Within the region, all mobile carriers based in Singapore, Australia and Thailand have integrated their billing systems with the Nokia app store to provide a more seamless end-user experience. The significance of such a billing service is that not every customer is comfortable using their credit card to pay for apps, which is the system Apple’s iTunes and Google’s Android Market currently utilize. Furthermore, credit card usage is not high among the emerging markets, particularly for rural communities. With OVI, users can still access apps by paying for the apps through prepaid or postpaid accounts with local operators. Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer Relations at Forum Nokia Asia-Pacific, notes that two out of every three consumers will choose to pay for their downloaded apps via their operator rather than through their credit card. “The convenience that consumers experience through an operator billing-integrated app store will result in 13 times more the volume of sales than credit card-based app stores,” he says. This provisioning of an alternative payment system to credit card billing by integrating operator billing services into their app stores, is yet to be done by rivals like Apple, Google and Research in Motion (RIM) have yet to integrate Google and RIM, though, are currently working to offer such arrangements. For the Indian market, the company is going one step ahead by launching a separate circle of operator billing. Also Rao notes, “In an emerging country like India, we cannot compeletly depend on OVI store in terms of distribution. One of the biggest advantage in India is the retail outlets. Today there are 100,000 Nokia retail outlets and in a year’s time we will be selling apps out of retail outlets. Also OVI will soon launch billing in INR too.” Today, with these initiatives in place, Nokia is aiming to drive the thriving developer community and become the most preferred app development platform for developers.The fact that Forum Nokia saw 400,000 developers join in 2010 alone indicates its success amongst the developer community. Just as the company had reached out to all levels of consumers - from rural India and urban India to student populace to avid gamers to corporates, Forum Nokia hopes to cut across the psyche of mobile developers across the world and encourage the growing mobile entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in India. And this does not seem to be an unachievable task. OVI Store Trivia * Ovi Store attracts 3.5 million downloads a day, with an average of 2.6 apps downloaded per visit. * About 90 percent of Ovi Store traffic converts to downloads. * Of Ovi Store's signed-in users, 85 percent are repeat visitors. * Each active user averages 8.5 downloads per month. * Active users represent more than 190 countries. * Games are No. 1 among paid downloads, and apps are No.1 among free downloads. * 40 percent of the content downloaded are games and 30 percent are apps. * In India, the top apps downloaded are Utilities followed by Games and Entertainment * 90 percent of Ovi Store users have Ovi Store in their local languages. * Publishers from more than 90 countries distribute their content through Ovi Store. * 400,000 new Forum Nokia developers were added in the last 12 months. * 92 publishers have over 1 million downloads each on Ovi Store. * Ovi Store supports 135 devices models, including 80 Symbian device models. * Touch devices account for 6 of Ovi Store's top 10 downloading device models: 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 mini, 5530 XpressMusic, 5230 Nuron, and X6 where available. * The 10 most active countries are (in alphabetical order) China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the U.K. and Vietnam. * Over 80 percent of Ovi Store users can purchase content from Ovi Store using their local currencies. * More than two-thirds of customers choose the mobile-billing payment option in countries where it's available. * With support for 30 languages, 90 percent of visitors are using their local languages in Ovi Store. Qt: The ‘cute’ software for Developers The Nokia Qt is a single, easy-to-use software developer kit for rapid development, testing and deployment of native applications for millions of Nokia smartphones and mobile computers around the globe. Nokia has multiple platforms to serve different purposes and address different markets. Its Symbian platform is known to bring in smartphones to the masses having more than 40 percent of the global smartphone market. The primary benefits of Qt SDK are productivity (ease of use) and distribution (cross platforms). For instance, if a developer wants to access specific feature of Symbian or MeeGo devices to further differentiate their application the Nokia Qt SDK enables them to integrate the Symbian and Maemo SDK and make use of any other the APIs these platforms offer in their application. Additionally, Qt will play in bridging the gap between Symbian and MeeGo, the open source mobile operating systems that Nokia uses on its phones. Mobile Qt applications can support the two operating systems, which means that the third-party application developers won't have to write their software twice if they want to reach users of both platforms. Nokia has been constantly innovating to aid developers and ensure that they have the right platform to maximize downloads of their applications irrespective of the operating system in use. As per the Nokia’s developer strategy, Qt is one such cross-platform application and UI framework that is the sole development platform for Nokia smartphones moving forward, enabling the developers reach hundreds of thousands of smartphones with one development platform. Post the introduction of the Qt application; developers have seen a 70 percent reduction in code – saving development time, project costs, language internationalisation, and code maintenance. Using Qt, developers are able to write web-enabled applications once and deploy them across desktop, mobile and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code. Calling All Innovators: Indian Developers hit jackpot Toddler Tutor – Runner-up at Calling All Innovators Hackathon Developed by Delhi based Spice Labs, Toddler Tutor is a talking app that teaches children alphabets, numbers and common words. The app displays flash cards that can be swiped through and a speak button that speaks out the displayed card. The app also includes a coloring book with lots of images where children can select different colors to fill in. Green Phone – Runner-up at Calling all Innovators 2008 in Eco-challenge Category An S60 application maximizing battery life through improved regulation of device backlight, WLAN, Bluetooth and charger power consumption. Green Plaza - Second Runner-up at Calling all Innovators 2010 in Eco-challenge Category Developed by Webdunia.com , Green Plaza is an innovative Green application where individuals can test their everyday life, know their carbon footprints and get learning tips/hints to maintain an eco-friendly lifestyle. Application is well categorized to check out emerging 'Green' conceptions and technologies that will change the way we live. Users can play an interesting green Quiz and can get quick Go Green Tips that assist to reduce carbon footprints and help people to make environment sound decisions in day-to-day life. Nano Ganesh – Winner of Calling all Innovators 2008 in Emerging Market Category Developed by Ossian Agro Automation, this application allows farmers in India to establish remote contact with distant, modem-equipped electric irrigation pumps , to check on power supply and pump operation without the need to travel long distances . Comics Creator – Winner of Calling all Innovators 2010 in Entertainment Category Developed by Nextwave Multimedia, it is an easy-to-use mobile application that allows you to create your own comics, cartoon strips, photo journals, and more. With this application, you can turn your ideas into a comic format that you like, and share it with your friends. PlanEasy2D - Second Runner-up of Calling all Innovators 2010 in Productivity Category Developed by InfiMatra Technologies Planeasy2D application allow users to start drawing rooms and walls of their dream home in the dimension of their choice on a sq.ft , on a basic blank screen of their mobile or desktop. One can also use it to draw floor plans, building exit plans and other plans easily and quickly. Socially - Most downloaded social app on Ovi Store Developed by Bangalore based Antarix, Socially utilizes the rich data emerging from your social networks to enrich your phone's Address Book, Calendar, CallerID, Idle screen and more. Available on Ovi Store since August 2010, the app has seen over a million downloads.