Products & Services
Build it and, well, who knows who will come?
By Charlie on 13 August 2009
BOSTON, USA – One thing every company in the world believes that what they do is the greatest and the whole world wants them. There’s nothing wrong with that. Indeed, companies pop up to meet a gap in the market, or to try to make something better than the incumbent. Just look at the number of mobile phones and manufacturers out there.
But I think there are times when you can have a great product, offer it the way the market demands you to offer it, and then nothing happens. It’s like building the best mouse trap and no one beats a path to your door. Or, more often, you take the time and effort to create something and folks use it in ways you never expected. Sometimes that’s a delight, like SMS, and sometimes it’s an embarrassment, like, well, read on below.
It’s a cut and slash sorta world
I’m going to poke at a competitor and poke at ourselves. The first poke comes from a funny article by Charlie Brooker, of the Guardian. In an article about paying for content, he spends a lot of time joking about “iPhone apps he’d like to see.” Despite Apple’s latest string of diligent app-slashing (Jordan Golson has a nice list, as well), many apps that make it into the app store are frivolous (can I say “fart” on this site?).
It’s not really Apple’s fart fault. They built an amazing app distribution system and all developers really want to make are beer-guzzling, gun-shooting, fart-making apps. And people are buying them.
Just a disclaimer, I really don’t know what’s going on inside the Ovi Store approval process, but they have one just the same. You have to, if you want a proper app channel. But Nokia sometimes gets hit with the opposite problem.
(H)Open for business
From what I have heard, the Ovi Store has been growing well (like I said way back when, the Ovi Store folks are shy and haven’t shared any stats with me in a while). And there are a ton of great apps for Nokia phones, some of which are only on Nokia devices. Still, that’s not what I want to talk about.
I want to point out that despite S60 being “open to possibilities,” it really depends on the developers to close any gaps there might be. So, sometimes I think there are decisions to leave something out of an S60 device, with expectations of a partner (like Mail for Exchange) or a clever independent developer (like Gravity) creating something that’s needed.
I feel that the whole SIP client story is one of those (no flames, please). Nokia took out the client expecting IT departments and independent developers to create a better SIP client. Sure, there are VoIP clients, which cover the majority of folks. But the folks who want a proper SIP client on their phone ended up not having any developer make anything for them.
Usually, independent developers drive innovations in a platform, whether it be Windows or Symbian or whatnot. In the case of SIP, when Nokia built a phone, with all the foundation needed for SIP, no one came – no Cisco, no IBM, no one.
Solutions?
I suppose device manufacturers, like Apple and Nokia, need to keep cajoling and encouraging developers to innovate and fill functionality gaps that are present in all devices. In my many years in the industry, I have heard many stories of how independent developers have transformed a platform in ways the original creator never thought.
As the new app stores take the mobile app market to a new level, it’s even more important that the selection be rich and plentiful. And useful, too.
What do you think? What are the gaps that frustrate you (SIP, folks, no need to repeat yourselves)? How will you find what you need and sort through the chaff?
Image from laffy4k
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August 13th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I wonder if Apple has interests in developing countries. Would be nice to see what they could come-up-with regarding mobile (app.) development.
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August 13th, 2009 at 10:59 am
When it comes to SIPs I found these links quite interesting.
http://www.freeswitch.org/
and
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/SIP_TLS#Nokia_.2F_Symbian_S60_Setup
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August 13th, 2009 at 11:05 am
With regards to gaps: I see gaps in the existing deeper programming in S60. I think there should be an option to set up the positioning methods as can be done with destinations.
I want to bea ble to set which positioning methods one app uses in comparison to another. I use the N97 (Excellent phone) and love both OVI Maps (dispite it’s many issues) and Nokia Sports Tracker (dispite it’s present outwardly stangnating developement and removed S60v5 support). I have an exeternal BT GPS Module (Nokia LD-4W) which I used to use with my N97 for Sports Tracker. Driving can be done using the internal GPS, but the BT GPS modules usually consume less power and are slightly more accurate for sports tracking.
I want to be able to set bluetooth GPS on for Sports Tracker and off for Nokia Maps. Simple but could be very useful and NOTHING does this.
I realise this is pretty specific but I feel it would be very useful.
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August 13th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Skype is being covered to a degree in the interim via Nimbuzz and Fring.
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August 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
@mbrett,
Nimbuzz is a great app, and I use it religiously for IM and Google Voice. However, I will admit that now, even though I originally supported the move, that Nokia made a mistake removing the SIP client.
Here’s why. Voice calls are a core mobile function, much like SMS/MMS. When Apple left MMS off its devices, they left developers to fill the blanks. I don’t think users want an app for a core feature that doesn’t provide a homogenous experience with the core UI and feature set.
Before, SIP was handled well on Nokia phones. It had great data sharing with the Contacts list, and all of the phone features from the default phone calling software were present. Now things like creating touch tones during SIP calls are a mystery. The Gizmo on S60 Beta Lab creation was a great solution, but low and behold, Nokia has made it inaccessible.
Nokia and S60 has always been about options. I think Nokia needs an option to install the default SIP client that integrates into the regular calling app. Taking away a feature, like they have with video editing (which is a DUMBASS move for a media device), only hurts the user. Why cater to developers to replace something that already works when they don’t have the motivation to do so?
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August 14th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Maybe because of my geo-location (North America), I see a strong community of both designers and developers in the iPhone but the Symbian ecosystem seems to only have developers on board.
By ecosystem, I mean the start ups and individual designers/developers working together, not folks at the carriers or at interactive agencies on the manufacturers payroll.
And Nokia’s own efforts seem to be with Developers (track at Nokia world, but where is the plugin for designers) and with vendor relationships with Interactive ad agencies, but not reaching out to the design community of folks who freelance or are able to work on apps/start up projects.
As a designer/dev hybrid, I would *love* to find a local Symbian dev to work with, but none that I can find in my area, they seem to all reside on the Asia/Euro space. I could find Cocoa/C and J2ME folk just fine.
One of the things that I think would bust open the Ovi App store is if there were more outreach to the web design & dev folk as well as the UX/UI designers out there and help match them up with the Symbian developers in their local areas to help organically grow apps.
Apps are best when designers and developers work together from the ground up. Look at Gravity, it is obvious that the UX/UI design was equal to and worked on along with the code.
Maybe the next Nokia event could be a hack day that brings together Symbian devs with designers & UX/UI folk.
;o)
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September 6th, 2009 at 7:14 am
What are the gaps that frustrate you (SIP, folks, no need to repeat yourselves)?
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What does it suppose to mean? Nokia simply turns down the requests to enable consumers to have proper, native SIP client on their device (such as N97) ???
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Quote:
Nokia took out the client expecting IT departments and independent developers to create a better SIP client. Sure, there are VoIP clients, which cover the majority of folks. But the folks who want a proper SIP client on their phone ended up not having any developer make anything for them.
Usually, independent developers drive innovations in a platform, whether it be Windows or Symbian or whatnot. In the case of SIP, when Nokia built a phone, with all the foundation needed for SIP, no one came – no Cisco, no IBM, no one.
—
Ok, so it’s clear, no one came. Nokia’s plan to “provoke” 3rd party vendors to develop proper SIP client utilizing Nokia’s SIP stack doesn’t work.
Shouldn’t it mean Nokia has to re-evaluate that plan, and finally decides to issue that SIP client we’ve been longing?
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