UIQ Fast Track Developer Event

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UIQ Technology recently held their first developer event, Fast Track, in Munich. Rafe went along to find out more.

UIQ Fast Track 

 UIQ Technology recently held its first UIQ Fast Track event for mobile developers in Munich. The event was aimed at updating developers with recent developments and providing an introduction to the UIQ ecosystem. Experts were on hand to help solve technical queries and provide advice on a whole range of issues that mobile developers face – from technical, to distribution and marketing.

Of course the event also presented an opportunity for less formal interactions. Developers had a chance to get together and compare notes, strategies and thoughts and discuss where they thought the industry was going. And of course no visit to Munich in winter would be complete without a responsible amount of Glühwein drinking... 

The Fast Track event was divided into a number of sessions in two tracks, one with a business and marketing focus, and one with a technical focus.

Welcome to the UIQ Fast track
Elisabet Melin, UIQ Technology

Elisabet Melin welcomed attendees to UIQ Technology’s first developer event and gave them a brief introduction to the company and the platform. Sony Ericsson’s recent acquisition of UIQ technology means more funding would be available to take the UIQ platform forward, but it was stressed that UIQ Technology would be retaining its independence. UIQ technology will become a subsidiary of Sony Ericsson. Melin then reviewed developments in 2006, pointing toward the release of Sony Ericsson’s M600, W950 and P990 smartphones and how they were taking UIQ into new and larger markets and, without giving any details away, indicated that this trend is expected to continue in 2007. For developers, the picture looks good too with the top five selling Symbian applications on Handango in 2006 running on UIQ.

Business Focus Track

UIQ 3 applications – designing for success
Jennifer Wendell, UIQ Technology

Jennifer Wendell talked about how the design of the UIQ platform helps developers. Thanks to the flexibility of UIQ 3 it is possible to develop one application that will run on all UIQ 3 phones regardless of phone manufacturer, style of the phone, or the network operator. This offers developers significant savings in time and costs. The importance of considering the implications of designing for a mobile device was then discussed. Among the points raised was the need to consider the small screen and limited number of keys, the importance of fast interaction (it should be an enabler, not a barrier), the importance of predictability (which leads to intuitive usage) and the importance of consistency (creating a familiar feel for users). The session ended with the conclusion that the user experience is one of the main features of the UIQ product and is one of the keys to success.

Selling Mobile Applications – Segments, Channels and Trends
Mark Donovan, m:Metrics

Mark Donovan introduced developers to m:metrics, a company which provides information and statistical data on the mobile market place. Mark shared a number of findings with developers, including information about the local German market and how it varies from other European markets. He also pointed at the rise of entertainment applications, traditionally the smartphone world has been quite business-focussed, but entertainment applications are emerging as a growth area. He also underlined the importance of the user experience (ease of use), describing how it has one of the biggest impacts of customer perception and satisfaction.

Delivering Value – Working with Operators
Steve Parrott, Orange

Steve Parrott from Orange represented the Operator segment of the value chain at the Fast Track Event. He outlined the benefits of Orange’s developer program, Orange Partner, describing it as the key interface between Orange and developers. He described how many of Orange’s most successful partnerships with third party developers had grown out of meetings and attendance of Orange’s developer events, the biannual Partner Camps. He also discussed Orange’s NExT (New Experience in Telecoms services) program, which is the integrated operator strategy for France Telecom and attempts to address a fast moving market and aims to deliver the best news and converged services to Orange’s customers. Developers have a key role to play because external innovation is necessary for Orange. Orange is looking to source identify, capture and exploit external innovation.

Parrott then looked in more detail at several programs which are of specific interest to developers. Firstly the Orange Catalogue, which is an internal sales brochure for third party products. Secondly the Orange Compatible endorsement, which is a seal of approval that indicates products have undergone and passed Orange Compatibility testing and been approved as being commercially viable. It is useful for developers because it allows products to be associated with the Orange brand and adds another level of credibility when interfacing with Orange product managers.  Thirdly the Orange Application shop, which is a mobile web shop available on web and WAP portals and enables customers to buy applications and pay directly on their Orange bill, via Premium SMS and by credit card.

So why should we become Accredited Symbian Developers?
Ian Weston, Majinate

 Ian Weston introduced attendees to the Accredited Symbian Developer (ASD) programme. The ASD scheme is designed to introduce an independently verifiable professional competency accreditation into the Symbian ecosystem. It is operated by Majinate Limited independently, but on behalf of Symbian as part of the Symbian Academy programme. It is strongly supported by Nokia and UIQ Technology. Accreditation is achieved through the taking of an online multiple choice exam. The exam is comprehensive and adaptive (it will test everyone to the limit of their knowledge) and is designed to test situations encountered in real work. An ASD is someone who has a through knowledge of the Symbian OS from object construction to platform security and beyond; in the real world, this means someone who takes professional development seriously.

Weston pointed out that ASD can be an importance business tool. It makes it possible to recruit and hire the best developers without having an extensive technical assessment of each candidate. Exam results are comparable and thus different candidates can be compared and their relative strengths evaluated. ASD is also useful for existing employees because it allow managers to identify weak areas in a team where additional training may be required. Moreover, it makes it possible to tailor training to each individual and assess its effectiveness, which provides cost savings and improves productivity. It can also be used to make judgments about whether a team has sufficient strength and abilities to carry out a particular project or task.

Technical Focus Track

Maintaining Commonality, Enabling Differentiation
Martin Argenius, UIQ Technology

Martin Argenius led a session which gave a technical insight into the UIQ 3 software platform and how it aims to maintain commonality while enabling differentiation. Argenius noted that the first three UIQ 3 phones are all aimed at different segments: the P990i is a general business device, the M600i is a messaging device and the W950i is a music device. Differentiation can be achieved through the use of UI customization (consisting of icons, settings, sounds, themes, content, fonts and animations), but also through the use of the different UIQ phone styles. Applications can also take advantage of these components to create a different experience on different phones while maintaining commonality in a single code base. In order for this to work most effectively, Argenius offered some tips to developers: separate the application engine and UI, use resource-based application creation, use UIQ UI controls and use only @publishedAll APIs. Argenius then ran through a number of code examples to give a practical demonstration. He finished by concluding that there were significant business benefits to maintaining commonality: it reduces time to market; it simplifies application optimization and offers lower application maintenance.

UIQ 3 practical hints and tips
Steve Wilkinson, EMCC Softwareemcc

Steve Wilkinson gave developers a hands on, practical insight into developing on the UIQ 3 platform. He offered an insight into the new features introduced in UIQ 3 and the variety of tips and tricks to help facilitate real world development. The first focus was on resource handling. The second focus was on the building blocks used in UIQ 3 UI developments. The third focus was on general UIQ 3 UI hints and tips. Throughout the session Wilkinson used practical code examples to demonstrate his points.

NetBeans Mobility Pack
Martin Ryzl, Sun Microsystems

Martin Ryzl introduced developers to the NetBeans Mobility Pack. NetBeans is a comprehensive Java development package that allows the creation of mobile, desktop, web and enterprise applications with a single tool. The NetBeans Mobility Pack is an add-on which allows for mobile (JME) development in the NetBeans IDE. NetBeans Mobility Pack aims to provide the best out of the box experience and seeks to avoid the costs involved in lengthy set up and configuration time. Ryzl explained that for Java Micro Edition (JME), NetBeans supports both the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and the Connected Device Configuration (CDC). The UIQ 3 range of phones from Sony Ericsson (W950, P990, and M600) all have support for CDC. During the sessions, Ryzl demonstrated the visual flow designer which helps speed up UI design for CLDC applications, the use of the Matisse UI designer for CDC applications and the use of on-device debugging via Bluetooth.

Migrating to UIQ3
Charles Weir, Penrillian

Charles Weir from Penrillian gave developers an insight into porting applications to UIQ 3 from other platforms. He first pointed out that porting was most often easier that reimplementing an application from its specification. This is because thousands of ‘functionality decisions’ are made within the code that are not apparent within the specification. Maintaining this ‘business logic’ is vital in creating a parallel experience and usage across multiple platforms. Weir described the porting process by using Penrillian’s own work as an example. He pointed to three key techniques: first, code triage, second, refactoring to produce portable code and third, test-driven porting. The code triage stage involves looking at existing code file by file and deciding which is portable and which is not and to what extent. In the refactoring stage Weir recommended looking at general techniques and pointed developers towards Michael Feather’s book ‘Working effectively with legacy code’. Test-driven porting places emphasis on the importance of testing to ensure different components work as intended before integrating into the finished product.

How can Symbian Signed help sell my applications?
Bruce Carney, Symbian

 Bruce Carney gave developers an insight into the importance of the Symbian Signed program. He first gave an overview of the current environment for Symbian application developers. With more than 100 million Symbian phones now sold there is an ever increasing potential market and Symbian application volume and sales are continuing to grow. Carney said that the benefits of Symbian Signed were both technical and commercial. Technically, it allows the removal of the ‘warning’ screen when an unknown application is installed, access to sensitive capabilities on Symbian OS 9 and, with appropriate approval, gives access to device manufacturer-approved capabilities. Commercially, Carney said it gives customers increased confidence in the quality of applications, while reputable companies can demonstrate their professional approach and the signatures are tamper proof, which gives increased security against software piracy.

After the sessions

After the sessions, a social networking event in the bar led to beer drinking (surprise!) and a wide variety of discussions. Topics discussed included difficulties in dealing with distributors, experiences in working with operators and device manufacturers as well as debate about where the mobile industry is headed. Developers were also able to demo new and existing applications and were able to get feedback from their colleagues and from the sessions' speakers.

It is often these social opportunities between sessions and at the end of the day that are most valuable. With an event such as Fast Track there a large pool of talent in the room all of whom work in the same area. There is also a chance to get to know the UIQ Developer team face to face and provide direct feedback. 

Both these social and the learning opportunities meant that, amongst the developers I spoke too, there was universal praise for the overall event.

UIQ Technology will be holding further developer events in both the US and Europe later this year.