Betavine, the Vodafone mobile developer site, is currently running a web widget competition. For once a mobile development competition is truly open to any developer; no special tools (beyond those supplied free by Betavine) or signing is required.

Web widgets are the hot mobile technology. Pretty much every device manufacturer and mobile web vendor has or seems to be implementing an engine to run widgets. It is hardly surprising to find that mobile operators are getting into the game too.

“For our customers, the rich interface and interactive nature of widgets means they offer a much improved experience when compared to mobile web browsing,” says Amer Hasan, Senior Manager, Apps & Developer Programs at Vodafone Group Marketing. “As a result we’re convinced they'll encourage many more people to access the internet from their mobiles.”

Of equal importance to Vodafone, according to Amer, is that widgets don’t have the barriers other mobile development technologies present to small or emerging developers. “Most mobile platforms are hard for developers to break into, because of barriers such as needing to learn bespoke programming code for each mobile OS. Widgets, because they are based on web technology, provide a good opportunity for us to reach out to not just the traditional mobile developers, but to web developers too,” notes Amer.

More particularly, Vodafone is keen to tap into the innovation and dynamism exhibited by many individual web developers. “We're seeing many functionally rich and innovative web applications coming from what are often called ‘bedroom’ developers,” says Amer. “All operators have traditionally guided the use cases available to our customers; we have done that quite successfully to date. But, as the use of the mobile web increases and powerful platforms become more commonplace we're seeing that, once you have the ability to offer web technology through widgets, a lot of creativity and innovation is being unleashed – often for things that device manufacturers and operators may not have thought of. Many smaller developers who live and breathe web services on the desktop are constantly experimenting with mashups and pushing these out to web communities to see if they catch on. We want to bring some of that frontier spirit to our portfolio and that is why these pioneering developers are as welcome as developers from established web businesses.”

Vodafone are not alone in this view or so the proliferation of environments in which widgets can be run would suggest. Given the variety of options and that there was already a widget environment on the targeted S60 devices, what made Vodafone choose Opera?

The main attraction was Opera’s adherence to the standards for widgets being drawn up by the W3C. “We are passionate about driving standards,” notes Amer. “Choosing an environment that is close to the standard sends a good message to the developer and handset manufacturer communities.” Another strength Opera has is its ability to gear up to supporting multiple handsets in multiple markets. “Opera was able to prepare for launch in five of our biggest markets within a matter of months,” says Amer. 

The Vodafone widget service has been launched in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and soon South Africa. Initially it is a user installable application (currently available from Vodafone Live!) but will eventually be preinstalled on new handsets. The initial list of ten S60 devices will be joined by half a dozen more, taking the target audience from over a million to several million as it rolls out over the summer. 

To support the development of widgets Betavine offers an SDK consisting of the Opera browser (to enable widget testing on a PC), a packaging application (which helps create the basic widget components and package the final widget), a widget manager application for S60 devices, and three example widgets.

While the initial number of supported devices is limited and the competition asks for entries in English, the SDK tools are designed to enable developers globally to get involved. “The developer version of the Opera widget manager for devices will run on any S60 3rd Edition device and these devices don’t need a Vodafone SIM,” says Amer. “This is because we are just as keen for a developer in say Brazil to be involved as we are for one from the UK or Germany.”

 
The example Twitter widget running on a Nokia E61i

While Vodafone are keen to tap into the global pool of web innovation there are some criteria that widgets will need to fulfil. “As you might expect we have some standards of content decency we expect widgets to adhere to,” says Amer. “Similarly there are guidelines about core widget behaviour such as monthly data traffic, to ensure a good customer experience in terms of responsiveness and impact on their data plan.”

Once a developer has created a widget for the competition, they need to sign up to Betavine to upload their widget for publishing.

While the competition closes on 30 April, Amer believes there is still an opportunity for developers to get involved. “One of the benefits of widgets is that developers can leverage the code they have used in web based mashups and applications,” says Amer. “This means it is possible to create widgets in just a few days, so developer still have time to build something for the competition.”

The competition is offering a main prize of £20,000 and two runner up prizes of £1,000. However, in addition to the cash prizes every entry will get considered for inclusion in the portfolio of widgets made available to Vodafone customers. “While rewarding the best widget is important to us, we also realise there will be many good widgets submitted,” says Amer. “This presents a great opportunity for us to build our portfolio of widgets for our customers, but also means many developers will get the opportunity to distribute there widgets to millions of Vodafone customers and gain valuable feedback. I see this as an important aspect of what we are doing because I feel so often developer competitions miss that link to distribution out to real customers.”

“By running this competition I hope developers will see that we're serious about widgets,” says Amer. “We want to make a big splash in the developer community, a case of putting our money where our mouth is!”


For more information on the Betavine Widget Competition 2009 please visit the Betavine web site.