Nokia's Change Of Heart
Just recently Nokia, the Finnish born mobile phone manufacturer, put up a competition to find the most innovative mobile apps. We believe this might be part of a bigger initiative to reach out to startups in the wake of what App Store has done for Apple.
The word on the street is that Nokia is really(!) trying to reinvent themselves. This does not only mean shifting the focus partly from hardware to software such as Ovi service which just launched recently, but also possibly finding new partners in the platform area in order to create an ecosystem similar to what Apple is doing with App Store.
Not only has Nokia been sniffing around in Android developer conferences, but when I recently spoke to a Nokia employee working high up in the organization he was carefully asking around how a platform change away from Symbian would affect the startup scene over here in Finland. This might just be speculation or part of a careful scenario planning exercise from Nokia's part, but then again it might be much more that.
Now, Nokia has put up a mobile app competition (here) which is clearly part of their answer to Apple's App Store. The contest is open for everyone: independent developers, startups, and so on. There are three different categories for submission:
- Eco challenge (looking for apps that help make sustainable choices)
- Emerging market challenge (apps to empower people in developing countries)
- Technology showcase challenge (looking for killer apps which feature cutting edge mobile technologies)
Winners of each contest will receive $25K cash prize, will be able to distribute their apps through Nokia channels, with possibility to meet VCs, showcase their apps in Mobile World Congress 09 in Barcelona.
The big question is that do these pieces add up to something much more than what we're currently seeing. Will Nokia take up Android to challenge Apple's App Store? What do you think?
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It's nice to see how iPhone and Android are changing the market rapidly and I just hope that Nokia can keep up. Anyway sponsoring independent developers is never a bad move :)
One change that I hope they are going make is the shift away from Symbian because it's really restricting programmers now (see what is happening with Android apps before any devices are on the market!). What I have heard is that they are actually dumping Symbian really soon and moving to Linux but my sourse is not 100% reliable.
Nokia has held competitions of sorts for a few years now. It is nice that you guys picked this up too :)
Android is brobably not the way to go, seeing that Nokia has put many years of development work on Maemo platform. It is most likely that they will stick to their now existing S40, S60 & Maemo palette.
The Apple App Store competitor is officially coming from a service that Nokia has had for years now on low profile, the Dowload! That they have now started to work on a bit harder.
I would not look for an Apple App Store clone, after all Nokia is building for something completely different than Apple. (Though they will have to take example from Apple in usability)
@Jori: Dumping Symbian is a far fetch, the tyranny of legacy will keep Symbian/S60 going for a long time.
And Unlike many think, there actually is a community around S60 development. Not as sexy or outspoken as Android and iPhone communities, but it is there.
The way I see it: Linux will play a stronger role in the future, but replacing S60 now that Nokia owns Symbian would be just bad business :)
Hmm, this is what I call gossiping. I agree with Miika above - all the stuff mentioned in the posting is business as usual.
Competitions - sure, Nokia has had them for years.
"Sniffing around" - all people / companies do that.
As said already, Android is NOT the way to go.
Dumping Symbian - may happen but over time with the help QT
App store - Nokia has had that for years. And what about Club Nokia, anyone? That initiative was killed by the operators and the basic idea was the same than with iTunes / app store of Apple. Apple has cleverly used its brand power to change the market - which is good for ALL the other players in the market. But with a cost. Great analysis by Tomi Ahonen can be found here
http://www.communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/10/as-we-await-the.html
And what comes to the "big change" - of course it's taking place. We ARE seeing it (ComesWithMusic etc.). Will it be successful - hard to say. But at least they're trying. And trying hard.
What about this scenario: Symbian is history, Android is here, Linux is the future. And that would be a good scenario for Nokia...
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