Apple iPhone Retrospective

Device manufacturers and mobile phone operators have run their own “Walled Garden” stores for a decade. They were satisfied, to have an effective and controlled way to stand apart of the tough competition. Nokia device was something else than Vodafone or Orange device, regardless of using the same hardware. The competition was fierce, all means were taken into use.

Hardware manufacturers (OEMs) tried everything: released dozens of color variations, different form factors, even allowed customizing sounds and wallpapers – as long as they were bought from operator's own store. They released feature-packed “killer devices” and ultra-low-cost devices for emerging markets. Something for everybody. There were even system firmware updates to fix defects – for free! It was all about serving the customers. Customers just weren't happy, but nobody could exactly tell what was the problem. There were millions of problems, each different for millions of people.

Apple knew nothing about mobile phone business or how to serve the difficult mobile phone customers. They were world leading experts in serving small niche markets, where User Experience was more important than price. Markets where usability, look and feel, user delight were key aspects. Maybe that's why Apple succeeded where OEMs failed: serving the customer. They came into mobile phone business from outside, with a view from outside. Apple offered something completely different.

First Apple iPhone was technically a mediocre device compared to smartphones from any traditional OEM. Not enough memory, too slow, camera worth joking, just a single akward hardware form factor, poor connectivity, running only a single application at a time – and worst of all – hooked up into iTunes desktop application. It just didn't offer everything for everyone, it was targeted to niche markets. Nothing to take seriously, OEMs might have thought.

There were customers even before iPhone release. Millions of users were registered in iTunes, familiar with buying music pieces online. They jumped happily to the new device as a better music player. Price was pretty high, but you got Cover Flow UI, animated 3D user interface, which was familiar from existing iPod music players and Apple desktop machines. It was something uber-cool in a mobile device. Very thin and stylish hardware design didn't hurt either.

Everything changed with Apple AppStore. People had a cool music player, which was suddenly able to run applications. People who were familiar with buying music online, would now buy software. Everything just clicked together: cool design, simple to use, millions of existing users, familiar market place, ease of purchase, reasonable terms for 3rd party developers, Apple marketing machine. Mobile world turned around.

iPhone OS (March 2009) and App Store Metrics (July 2009) are nothing but awesome:

• Available in 80 countries around the globe
• iPhone OS devices 30 millions sold
• SDK downloads 800 000
• Registered developers 50000
• Available applications 55000
• Active publishers 14000
• Submissions per day 139
• Total 1000 million downloads

What about old traditional OEMs, what are they doing? How about operators, don't they want a share? One billions times of “current average overall price” of 2.60 USD equals 2.6 billion USD business. And it's growing.

Nokia set-up their own market-place, called Ovi Store. Analytics and experts agree that it's great, but users are difficult again and complain about many things. O2 set up their own semi-public software testing area, called O2 Litmus. It looks good, but smells like another walled garden. Palm Pre has sold 300000 devices, which have downloaded one million WebOS applications - from a selection of few dozen candidates. Palm Pre SDK is still not public. China Mobile, with 480 million customers, is opening their own application store. China might have more users than anyone else, but it is also very big in software piracy. Why waste good money, when you can get software for free (I've heard said). Google's Android Market also looks like the Next Big Thing, but will that be compatible with the rumoured 20+ devices to be released this year. There are already rumour it won't be 100% compatible.

Apple has total control on the whole chain: hardware, operating system, SDK, marketplace, invoicing. Apple has total control of mobile device developers – and they love it. Apple has it all and users love it.

Make Your Own Mobile Phone (Really)

Looking for a new mobile phone, can't find anything you like? How about a Real Dream Phone, with all the important features, none of the useless ones, the way you want it? You really want that? I mean really REALLY want?

FLOW DIY kit is a do-it-yourself mobile phone! You can choose GPS, GSM, GPRS, 3.5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, Accelerometers, touch screen, extra LCD displays, battery size, normal or Qwerty keyboard, covers. You can even leave the phone away and just do a custom PDA! Size like 69mm x 116.7mm x 13.7mm doesn't sound bad at all.

Based on Gumstix platform, completely modular and customizable. Comes with open source hardware design and a community support. Great for those who actually can do things by themselves and want to have something very special.

Mix this with open source mobile phone platform, like Android (now) or Symbian OS (hopefully later), and you're ready, set and go with an amazing mix: custom hardware with OS compatible with applications written for more boring phones! Want one!

[Gizmo For You via Engadget via Androinica]

Nokia Developer Summit 2009 Offsite

Nokia Developer Summit 2009 was held at Monaco, 28-29 April. I wasn't able to join, but still wanted to know what's going on. With today's technology, it was actually both easy and a pleasure.

First news came realtime via twitter hashtag search #nds09. Several reporters, occasionally even in different sessions, offered good selection of facts, opinions and background info. Thanx to at least @mobilejam @smashpop @AAS @bryanrieger @gloom303 @rayval @inti @mobiliser @henriquemartin onsite, as well as several offsite commenters.

Next there's some more or less realtime blogs, most notably Nokia Conversations and the official event website. They do have an advantage, having access to restricted insider info, and did a splendid job. The official website is most likely the best ever after-event site I've seen. Take a look, if you're interested in getting into the feeling of almost being there!

Talking about blogs, have to mention the old reliable All About Symbian. They might not be the fastest, but provide thoughtful, insightful analysis worth following. Podcast AAS Insight #69 contains NDS summary starting at 21+ minutes. Also Qt-based Orbit UI supersedes S60 AVKON in Symbian^4 article is an excellent overview of the future of Symbian platform. Check the comments, too.

Another interesting blog this year was Forum Nokia Blogs, where FN Champions were requested to blog from the event. Personal touch was a nice addition, great idea!

I'm not a fan of real-time video, with all the background noise, people walking by and coughing and seeing too many talking heads almost in focus. Talking backs of the heads are even worse, can't even try to read from the lips! These videos by Nokia Conversations are something else: professionally edited, short and to the point, with excellent picture and sound quality.

Main news from my offsite view, mainly via twitter (my comments inside parenthesis):

• It's not resolved yet how to get flash apps into Ovi Store (but I'm sure they will get in there)
• Forum Nokia delivers resources to 4+ million registered developers, website receives more than 1.5 million unique visitors per month. (Personally I've always "wondered" about that 4 million registered users, but 1.5 million "unique visitors" is an impressive number.)
• WRT is an abstraction layer. (Nokia keeps pushing WRT so hard, guess it will become a serious development platform)
• Ovi Store accepts only certified apps: Symbian Signed or Java Verified. (Flash is a bit open, hopefully Flash solution could be reused with python apps.)
• Finally a form of Map API will be available from Nokia (with restrictions and only for selected partners, but finally it's available)
• Developer focused twitter feed from Symbian Foundation @symbiandevco (great to see they embrase latest tech)
• QT Orbit announcement via Twitter, to replace AVKON. (Major major news. Truly surprised how little analysis there has been about this. Too big to understand or devs are just too skeptic)
• Application suite re-factored and re-written to take advantage of Qt APIs, Orbit widgets, and Direct UI. (This means S60 will fallback one year vs competition. Can they use the option to their advantage?)
• Maemo 5 Beta SDK was released around this time (there is a future for Maemo)

Wondering whether expos will become like big sports events: want to be there onsite, but will have no idea what's happening. Calling offsite friends to ask where to go, what to see.

JOM PyS60: 12 months, 22 apps, 45000 pageviews

What can you do with PyS60, the python programming language for Nokia S60 mobile phones? Software, of course! Lots of software, quickly, experimenting and having fun.

Last autumn I had the pleasure to be selected as Forum Nokia Champion, mostly due my engagement with PyS60. This is a report of the last amazing 12 months. If anyone objects shameless self-promotion, please skip the rest. I'm just so happy with the results of using PyS60, that I wanted to share this story.

I've done Symbian C++ for years, survived and never liked it. There was an odd addiction, have to admit that. Getting deep inside Symbian development, focusing 110% for hours and being able to solve complex issues does feel very satisfying. However it never felt very productive. But C++ coding was years ago, maybe things are different now.

Tried Java ME, but run immediately into fragmentation issues. Each line of code seemed to require few more "just in case", no pleasure at all.

Late 2006 PyS60 seemed like a toy programming language. Nice idea, but just didn't have enough anything to be taken seriously. 2008 I tried again. Didn't have much time, didn't want to use too much energy, just a quick look. Surprisingly PyS60 had developed quite nicely and it was possible to write sensor enabled software. PyS60 wasn't only "just another programming language" on par with everything else. It additionally offered access to accelerometer data with just a few simple lines of code!

March 27, 2008, I created my own website for releasing mobile software written with PyS60. From Day One I have been following Google Analytics statistics (free). Can't help it. I cannot write any software and NOT release it. Likewise I cannot create a website and NOT follow what happens with it. No big plans, it's just a way I'm internally wired. Fortunately it turned out to be interesting.

During last (about) 12 months I wrote and released (about) 22 applications written with PyS60. My website has received (about) 45000 pageviews by (about) 16000 absolute unique visitors. They look at average 2.32 average pages using 1:35 minutes on site. Says Google Analytics, can't argue with them.

http://jouni.miettunen.googlepages.com/

Never thought PyS60 software would be able to achieve that! Additionally during last one (1) week, I got 2700 pageviews by 1200 visitors, which projects into 11000 views by 5000 visitors for on-going months. Not too bad, considering each and every user has to find, download and install PyS60 runtime before they can use any of those apps. Hope they do. Wonder what the numbers would be for standard Symbian C++ software, much bigger no doubt! But this is python.

What is the future of PyS60? Since it's absolutely beginner friendly while still powerful, one would hope there is some future.

PyS60 1.9.x project is going on and progressing nicely. There are some issues with releases, but it's acceptable for work in progress. Just happy that Nokia Python team has the courage and foresight to make public sprint releases. The much expected PyS60 2.0 will be great, I'm sure about that:

Based on python 2.5.4 core with most of the standard libraries, support for Sensor Framework, support for Touch UI, graphical application packager, support for Platform Service API, some support for development on linux and Mac etc.

Just one request: would you please try to keep same UID, not change it for each and every release unless absolutely necessary?

Does PyS60 have any commercial future? Currently it seems that Nokia Ovi Store accepts only Symbian C++, Java ME and some Flash content. No news about PyS60. Well, as long as PyS60 remains fun to use and more productive than alternatives, I'll remain a happy coder. Wouldn't mind getting serious with Nokia Ovi Store, but that's a business decision out of my reach.

Cheers,

--jouni nighttime and weekend coder

PS.

Want to know what those 16000 visitors came to see? Here you are:

• First peak is 16 Puzzle
• Second peak is Mazing Days
• Third peak is Jomtris
• Fourth peak is Kredit Exchance
• Fifth peak will be Nixie Watch

PS. Initially released at Forum Nokia Blogs

eBook reader Stanza, Rest In Peace

Amazon has bought Lexcycle, creator of free eBook reader application Stanza, the 5th most downloaded free application in iPhone App Store. They say "We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition". Nicely said.

Amazon bought MobiPocket Reader, popular multi-platform ebook reader for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS, BlackBerry and Psion, around 2005. If All About Symbian report on MobiPocket status is any indication of future, we can say goodbuy to Stanza, too. No changes, they said.

Hopefully, if things go right in this world, Amazon is planning to release their Kindle eBook reader software for more than iPhone platform, too. Hopefully.

Fragmented Java - Finally!

Nokia has announced that it will version "Java Runtime for S60" separately from the underlying S60 platform starting with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. This will increase java fragmentation. It's about time!

Java fragmentation is a huge problem. Instead of "write once, run anywhere", you need to test separately on hundreds of devices. Sometimes you have to choose features on certain devices in certain operator network or just the lowest common denominators. Either way, this has given java a bad name. Android suddenly looks very attractive, even with just one device out.

Nokia decision means offering Java Runtime updates outside firmware upgrades. This does increase fragmentation between and inside platforms, even within one device. True. On the other hand it increases device lifetime. Fragmentation can be partially fixed by individual updates. If this can be automated, situation improves!

Instead of fighting a lost war, Nokia turns the situation upside down and makes the best of it. New cool features, not supported by your device? Just update Java Runtime! Brave move, wise move, good for customers, good for marketing. Wonder what Sun will say about it? Or maybe IBM?

Currency Conversion can be Fun!

Every now and then you see something amazing, especially within mobile software business. Applications, which make hardware do something it wasn't supposed to do. UIs, which do old things in new ways or new things in old ways. Designs which are oh so obvious - after you've seen them.

Convertbot (for iPhone) by Tapbots is a festival of design, party of usability, dripping sex appeal all over the place. Maybe putting form over function, but that form alone is something I'd be delighted to use regardless of what the function might be. This is an application I want to be seen using.

Make yourself a favour and check out their video. You will be glad you did. Not only the application is awe-inspiring, but also their marketing: the quiet guitar music, reassuring metallic sound effects, confident presenter voice - and the application itself. You really have to see how touch UI applications work, screenshots just can't deliver the experience.

Thanx to Gizmondo for their inspiring "ConvertBot is the Prettiest Unit Conversion iPhone App You're Likely To See" article.

Mobile Games on Demand

Gazimoff's geekBlog has a good story about a potentially new, potentially revolutionary gaming system. After seven years of development, OnLive has announced Gaming as a Service. We could call it Cloud Gaming, since these times everything is Cloud Computing.

Lots of benefits in such system, same as in every SaaS system. Longer lifetime for "old" handsets (N93i), market for used devices, recycling phones, more data traffic for operators. Some additional drawbacks, like people who might want to own an actual physical copy of their favourite games.

I would like to see Mobile Gaming as a Service, as a Games on Demand. Great for end-users, easy setup and updating, available anytime and anywhere, instant community, automatic networking with people with similar thought, sharing of pictures, video and add-on material.

Could be built on top of widgets platforms already today. Apple Dashboard, Windows Mobile Widgets, Nokia Web Runtime Widgets, Opera Widgets, Yahoo! Widgets, NetFront Widgets, Plusmo Widgets, etc. Widgets are the new black.

How Many Developers Does it Take?

There are 30 million iPhone OS devices. PC World Business Center story is titled surprisingly "17 million iPhones", but for developers that's 30 million devices. Half of them might have only WLAN network access, but they all run the same software.

More interesting is that Apple's iPhone developer program has "50000 members", who have released "25000" applications. That's about 2 registered developers per single iPhone application.

Some people have released several applications. Some reprecent companies, which contain several persons. Some might have released no applications at all. Still 2 developers per application is a mind blowing number. Dare we compare?

Nokia reports it has "more than 4 million registered developers" (Feb 2009). Obviously they haven't released 2 million applications, but if even mere 1% of those had released a single application, we have an inventory of 20000 titles. Hopefully the much expected (and soon over-hyped) Ovi Store will be able to gather as many as possible together.

During last 12 months I released 16 applications. Some good, most not, but at least I did my share. If x% of those registered developers had done the same, we would have... Err, there's something wrong with my logic. I think I'm comparing Apples and ...?

Android 1.1 for ADP1, Just the Way You Wanted

Android Developer Phone 1 (ADP1), firmware upgrade 1.1, does not allow installing copy protected applications. The situation is weird, since intended target group for ADP1 is developers.

You know developers, the fellows who write those copy protected applications. The fellows, who need to check that everything works for normal users. Is this a not-so-clever way to increase hardware sales?

One of the surprises at MWC 2009 was lack of Android devices, regardless of expectations and early announcements. But no, there are still loads of Android devices in labs, 12 devices to be released by the end of 2009, VC people in the loop revealed. Or was it 16? Maybe 20?

Google says "many developers are concerned" about possibility to pirate copy protected applications on ADP1. On the other hand there are developers disagreeing with this. The situation is similar to Symbian Signed start: platform people blamed operators, who blamed platform people, nobody took credit.

Everybody forgets the developers, in the best interests of the developers, of course. Apple iPhone marketing department must be having a party.

One Shop to Rule Them All - or Maybe Not

What's going on in online mobile software business?

From myriad of small stand-alone one or two app websites, to operator controller Walled Gardens, to huge generic software stores (Handango), to manufacturer operated application stores (Apple AppStore, Android Market), to... what's next?

It's all about money. Developers, some of them, write software for money. Application stores were born, when some developers just couldn't figure out bookkeeping and tax systems. Some merged into megastores. Operators want their fare share, since they keep the system up and running. Manufacturers want to sell more hardware, maybe even get their own fare share of the software and services business.

Some developers are not happy about this. After so many fair shares taken in between, after so many forced restrictions and requirements, there is very little left for developers. There is more than just money: freedom, independence, self-expression. Latest software market revolutions are led by Cydia, to fight Apple's tight control, and potential "Android App Flea Market".

Nokia has been heavily criticized about being late in the online application store rush. Maybe they let others make mistakes first, learn from them, and then make things right. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Let's see how Apple and Android deal with the new situation. Let's see how long Nokia waits.

Nokia Energy Profiler 1.2

One of my favourite tools has been updated, Nokia Energy Profiler 1.2.

New features are supporting S60 Touch UI, WLAN received signal strength and "3G cellular network T1 and T2 timers". Wonder what that last one could mean? Pleasure to study, no doubt!

I was thinking about Nokia Energy Profiler, when I created my Sensor Analyser (requires PyS60 1.4.x) to figure out how to use sensors in S60 devices. Now it's time to make an update, especially since PyS60 1.9.2 has Sensor Framework support. No Touch UI support yet, but it'll come.

Btw never could understand why Nokia didn't make & release any developer tools to encourage using sensors. Maybe it was to easy?

Best of Nokia 5800 Software - how depressing

Steve Lichfield from All About Symbian has put together an interesting list of top-10 freeware applications for Nokia 5800, Nokia's famed touch screen device. The list contains good solid basic applications, but it's nothing to get excited about, on the contrary. Maybe that's why Steve added 10 more apps to the list.

Where are the innovative applications, which would use the device's unique features? Where are motion sensitive applications, using big full screen, vibrating user as feedback? Where are apps using nothing but touch UI, finally getting rid of click-click-clickety-click Options menus?

The main features of Nokia 5800 are, in my opinion, touch screen and large(r) screen. Tactile feedback and sensor framework are fascinating, as well as new UI and feature improvements on S60 5th edition. WLAN and A-GPS are becoming commodity features.

Btw one more candidate for next list, actually a Forum Nokia developer demo: "S60 5th Edition: Solitaire Game Example". Better use of Touch UI, but missing few things on Touch Experience. Demonstrates what can be done with Touch UI, but leaves lots of room to improve.

iPhone AppStore statistics

Eye opening iPhone software statistics from Pinch Media with realistic sounding analysis: free vs paid, does advertizing pay off, counting eyeballs. Here's the slides.

It's always better to know what you're doing. The next best thing is to follow closely the reactions to your (random) actions. The worst thing is to just hope for the best. However on the average it's better to do something, than nothing at all. If you fail, then fail spectacularly.

Missed opportunities

Last week I bought Nokia 5800, was surprised about the experience.

In the shop I looked all around the box, could not see anything about S60, Symbian OS or possibility to run/install 3rd party applications. Half jokingly I complained to shop personnel and was mildly shocked about response. They had no idea that 5800 runs Symbian OS or S60, even less that it's possible to install additional software.

This was a big store in capital of Nokialand (Espoo, Finland), the shop run by the second biggest Finnish mobile phone operator.

I'm losing money as 3rd party sw developer, Nokia is losing money as hardware vendor and mobile phone operator is losing money as operator.

What would be a better time to advertise and sell mobile phone software than the exact moment the customer is ready and willing to pay for a brand new phone?

Consumer Attitudes Towards Mobile Applications

Brand new research report about how consumers think about mobile software. This free sample contains research objectives, table of contents and intro to creator companies ARCchart and WaveMetrix.

Not much there, for free, but one thing: table of content mentions two applications types separately: Games and Navigation applications.

No Messaging, no Email, no Social Networks, no Mobile-TV, no Video, no Camera, no Web Browsers, no Utilities, no Music Players. Just Games and Navigation. That's something to think about.