I’ve been touting mobile location-aware apps to developers and users for many years now. For those of you familiar with my travels and writings you’re also well aware that I’ve been a long-time promoter and supporter of Nokia, and in particular, their efforts to entice the application developer. Sure, Nokia smartphones may not be in the hands of a massive proportion of the population here in North America, however, you can’t argue the fact that Nokia is indeed the largest handset maker in the World (they are also the biggest distributor of GPS enabled devices).
One thing Nokia has done a great job at is chasing the developer. For those of you that are interested in developing or porting your existing apps to the mobile ecosystem then you have to consider Nokia (along with Symbian and Meego). The opportunities are HUGE and for the lucky developers that get Nokia’s attention there’s fame, fortune, and massive exposure awaiting you. I know many developers (small and large) who’ve been courted by Nokia, often being invited to attend, present, or speak at events around the World – many of them in pretty darned cool places! Nokia is hot on location – they didn’t buy NAVTEQ just for kicks! Ovi maps is their flagship web service and now ships on all their smartphones. Mabile Navigation, POI data, GPS tracking apps, and social location-aware services are huge. Consider creating a new app for a popular, cool, new Nokia smartphone like the Nokia N8 (expected to be Nokia’s next flagship device).
The latest effort by Nokia to court the North American developer is the popular Calling All Innovators competition – a chance for you or your company to grab a piece of a $10 million pie! Nokia, via their developer arm, Forum Nokia, has many resources to help the developer and there’s also interesting information sessions and events designed to help you get your app to market. To start, check out details of Calling All Innovators, and see also details of the Nokia Dev Day, scheduled to take place at CTIA this October in San Fran – the event is free to attend but registration is required – trust me, I’ve attended a Dev Day in the past and this is a fantastic opportunity that any would-be developer needs to consider. See more details in this announcements, see also http://www.callingallinnovators.com/10M/ and Nokia Dev Day at CTIA http://www.ctiaenterpriseandapps.com/events/eventdetails.cfm/1154
Register as an Ovi Publisher at http://publish.ovi.com Check out the Nokia N8 at http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/
