Why do Symbian developers take the Fifth?

[slitchfield]

One of the interesting points made in this week's Insight Podcast was the large number of applications (primarily in the Ovi Store) that are only targeted at S60 5th Editon devices, leaving behind a large number of 3rd Edition owners. There are also a number of notable incidents wher


e applications or games are even more restricted, to certain handsets. Read on for some thoughts...

Read on in the full article.

[Dead1nside]

It annoys me this "Get it on your Nokia" and by that they mean basically three different phones: N97, 5800 and the 5230.

I'm admittedly not a developer and if the revenue breakdown really is as you've reported then you can see the justification for what I would have otherwise called laziness.

[Jimmy1]

Oomph, I'm sure that won't do much to spur E72 sales. Nothing like admitting that a platform is close to death to tank interest in a gadget.

And (according to the Wall Street Journal) with a likely new Nokia CEO within a few weeks, maybe even an American, coming in, who knows what the future holds for Espoo.

[Rafe]

I would divide this a slightly different way.

Many of the 'serious' apps do come out for S60 3rd Edition (e.g. Skype). What we're not seeing is the more frivolous apps and games. Put another way it is the different between productivity / function adding content and consumable content (games, small 'fun' apps etc.).

I would add that its mainly S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices that get supported - and I think a lot of this is down to the Nokia E72, which remains a very popular handset.

Hi,

There so many devices with S60 3rd edition on the market that it is in fact strange that there are so many applications/games on the Ovi support that support only the latest devices. But don't worry, not all companies ignore users of very popular 3rd edition S60 OS. In our company, Trismer Technologies, we know how important this market is. Our latest app, SyncLion supports not only the latest devices, but also huge number of devices from the 3rd edition series, even the very old ones.

[Jimmy1]

A bit off topic but I have to say though, that if Nokia bundled in a Kinoma Play license for at least North American versions of the N8, I'd take a serious look at it, only because relevant content offerings for us here in the States from Nokia/Ovi are slim to none. It's why I was sold on the E71 even though it didn't offer a large touch screen.

[andynugent]

Can you give more info where you got that breakdown from?

[andynugent]

Originally Posted by Jimmy1

A bit off topic but I have to say though, that if Nokia bundled in a Kinoma Play license for at least North American versions of the N8, I'd take a serious look at it, only because relevant content offerings for us here in the States from Nokia/Ovi are slim to none. It's why I was sold on the E71 even though it didn't offer a large touch screen.

So the thing that'd get you to buy a $500 phone is a $30 piece of software? Why don't you just pretend the phone costs $530 and buy the app yourself?

The latest Mail for Exchange seems to be the other way around, MFE 3.0 has been out for months with some useful new features, but it is only on 3.0 and 3.1. Newer devices still have to use the 2.9 versions which lack features like html and subfolders.

[Jimmy1]

Originally Posted by andynugent

So the thing that'd get you to buy a $500 phone is a $30 piece of software? Why don't you just pretend the phone costs $530 and buy the app yourself?

Well, it was ONE of the things that would make me consider it.

I didn't mean to derail the topic, BTW, sorry Rafe/Ewan.

Another critical thing for me now is an ereader with a modern, up to date ebook marketplace, along with e-magazines. Basically, I would need a Kindle app for Symbian.

I am a game developer, and I have exactly the same sales figures 90% for S60 5th, 9-10% S60 3rd and the rest misc.

The thing is, it requires a total redesign of many game concepts to make it work on both touch AND non-touch. Some genres are impossible to do with only a D-pad for example (of course, the opposite is also true..) and that combined with the sales ratio - it not really worth the effort for the majority of the games.

S60 5th and it's Symbian^3 and ^4 and Meego successors are what will drive the gaming/entertainment segment for Nokia, absolutely no doubt about it.

[hugovk]

"The split is, collating info from a number of sources, roughly 90 / 9 / 1."

I'd also like some more info on where you get this from.

Jan Ole recently tweeted the top 5 phones by Gravity sales:
Nokia E71, N97, 5800, E72 and N95 8GB.
Three of those are 3rd edition, only two are fifth edition.

The latest Ovi stats for Mobbler I have show the top 5 phones by free downloads:
23.8% - 5th - Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
14.7% - 3rd - Nokia N80 Internet Edition
13.2% - 5th - Nokia N97
07.3% - 5th - Nokia 5530 XpressMusic
07.1% - 3rd - Nokia E71
These top five account for 66% of downloads, 44% for 5th and 22% for 3rd, a 2 / 1 split.

Andy, can you share any interesting figures from your Ovi downloads?

[kin869]

Well, if the majority of the apps on Ovi are for 5th Edition, then logically they'll have more sales for them. I personally find it hard to believe there's such a big gap between 3rd and 5th Edition users.

Still using a N86 BTW.

I think there is a distinct difference between games and entertainment and productivity apps.

The games and entertainment things sell a LOT more on 5th Edition than on 3rd for us.

However I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers where reversed when it comes to productivity apps.

When you think about it seems logical. Users who prioritize a, say QWERTY keypad over a big touch-screen, tends to go for the serious stuff, and a person who wants the big touch screen propably wants to be entertained. Of course not all can put in such strict terms, but the tendency is there.

Originally Posted by kin869

Well, if the majority of the apps on Ovi are for 5th Edition, then logically they'll have more sales for them. I personally find it hard to believe there's such a big gap between 3rd and 5th Edition users.

Still using a N86 BTW.

N86 is a great phone, yet it doesn't get a lot of support. Where's the Facebook app for N86???