All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
Nokia fights back with new developer offerings
Published by Rafe Blandford at 13:23 UTC, June 23rd 2010
Nokia has made a number of developer announcements today, which significantly strengthen their developer services and offerings. Perhaps most interesting is news of a public beta service that allows developers to get their content Symbian Signed at no cost (compared to a previous first time signing cost of up to $215). Also important is the news that individuals can now register as Ovi Publishers (previously restricted to companies) and that the Ovi Store is now accepting Qt-based applications. Finally, and the most significant in the long term, is the first full release of the Nokia Qt SDK 1.0 and the accompanying Nokia Smart Installer (previously in beta). Read on for additional details.
Key points
- Developers can get Symbian C++ and Symbian Qt content signed at no cost. With free tools and free signing, the only up-front cost for developers distributing via the Ovi Store is a one off €50 fee to register as an Ovi Publisher. →
- Individuals can become Ovi Store Publishers. This widens the number of developers who can upload applications and content to Ovi Store. →
- Nokia Qt SDK released. Nokia's next generation, cross platform (Symbian and Maemo), Qt-based developer tool kit, which is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It provides developers with a modern, robust and easy to use development environment for all of Nokia's existing and future smartphones and mobile computers (Symbian and MeeGo). →
- Ovi Publish is now accepting Qt content for Ovi Store. →
Public beta of Nokia Symbian signing apps for free
Nokia has announced a public beta of a program that will allow developers to get their Qt, Symbian C++ and Flash Lite applications signed at no cost. Furthermore, Nokia say they are expecting the typical time to be around two weeks (compared to a minimum of around 4 weeks previously). The new process is being organised through the Ovi Publish system. Developers interested in participating in this public beta should send an email to publishtoovi.support@nokia.com with their Ovi Publish username and they’ll receive more details.
The cost of signing has long been one the more common complaints from Symbian developers. Initial costs include the purchase of a Publishers ID ($200), which is only available for registered companies. Then, for each signing instance, there are further costs: €10 for Express Signed (suitable for 95% of applications) or €100+ for Certified Signed (for applications requiring access to sensitive capabilities). Together with the Ovi Store registration fee (€50), this meant the minimum cost for developers signing their first native or Qt Symbian application is $215.
It is compulsory for Symbian C++ and Symbian Qt applications to be signed before they can be uploaded to the Ovi Store. WRT (.wgz)-based applications (Symbian), Maemo applications (.deb) and Maemo Qt applications do not currently need signing.
Clearly Nokia's new initiative is going to be very attractive to developers and lowers the barriers for developers wanting to get their content into the Ovi Store. It means that the only cost for a developer to place content in the Ovi Store is the one-off fee of €50 to register as an Ovi Publisher.
Individual as Ovi Publishers
Individuals can now register as Ovi Publishers; previously Nokia only accepted company registrations. The exact requirements vary from country to country, but the move should enable a greater number of developers to distribute their content through the Ovi Store.
Ovi Store now accepting Qt content
Developers who have registered as Ovi Publishers can now upload Qt-based apps to the Ovi Store. Initially the target devices are the N97 mini, Nokia X6 and Nokia N900. Nokia say that additional S60 5th Edition and S60 3rd Edition devices will also be supported in the future. All future Symbian^3 (e.g. Nokia N8) and MeeGo devices will also be supported. Applications will be published to Ovi Store beginning next month.
Nokia Qt SDK 1.0
The Nokia Qt SDK, which has been available in beta for a few months, has now received its first formal full release. The Nokia Qt SDK introduces a single 'easy-to-use' software development kit (SDK) for Symbian and Maemo (MeeGo) application development. The SDK is a heavily customised version of the Qt SDK, with specific focus on, and support for, Nokia's mobile devices. It provides a complete tool chain for creating, developing, testing, packaging and deploying Qt applications. The SDK is available for both Windows and Linux. A beta version is available for MAC OS X 10.6 or later.
The Nokia Qt SDK final release includes the following components: Qt Creator 2.0 final, Qt Simulator 1.0 final, Qt Mobility libraries, a current version of MADDE, Symbian packages, Smartinstaller packages for Symbian, the experimental Remotecompiler and documentation for all components.
If you have installed the beta or release candidate of the Nokia Qt SDK, the integrated updater will automatically update you to the latest verson, there's no need to reinstall.
See also Qt blog and Qt Labs blog (details of changes from release candidate).
Nokia Smart Installer
The Nokia Smart Installer is part of the Nokia Qt SDK. The Smart Installer for Symbian makes it easier to deploy Qt applications to Symbian phones, especially on existing phones that do not have the Qt libraries installed (Qt only becomes standard in Symbian^3). With Smart Installer, developers do not have to worry about including Qt or its dependencies on sis files with their application. Nor do they need to educate users about installing an extra file or checking for Qt library-related install issues.
Developers can package their Symbian Qt applications using the Smart Installer. When a user installs a .sis file (either directly or from a distribution point like Ovi Store) the Smart Installer component will check what dependencies are required (e.g. Qt, Qt Webkit, Open C) and, if necessary, go online, download and install them. The key benefit is that it ensures phones get an up to date version of Qt and its dependencies (ensuring applications work optimally); it also significantly reduces the file size of sis file because it is no longer necessary to included the dependencies with the sis file.
Rafe Blandford
News Discussion
Maemo (i.e. N900) does not support WRT.
With Python you install Python 1.4.5 (because of PED) and Python 2.0 on your phone (2.0 also on your PC), install the Python IDE PED (on your phone!). Then you write your scripts on the phone, start and test it directly from within PED. When ready, you test it with 2.0, send it to your PC, where you have installed the Python-Kit from Nokia, start the PyS60 Application Packager (GUI-Program) and create a ".sis".
For the first time you distribute your programs, currently (at least for S60 3rd FP1) it's necessary to deliver the Python Runtime and pips.sis (included in the PC installation), which any user must install, before he can install Python scripts (afaik for 3rd ED FP2 onwards it's possible to include runtime and pips in the sis). It's really that simple. You can find some examples from me on http://www.aikon.ch in the "Programmierer Forum". The runtime is in Calcapp.sis, the other program is a interface to the Symbian inbuild SQL database. I have both tested on Nokias RDA on N97 (S60 5th), they worked - I am using an E90 communicator.
Last but nut least: Python programs using appuifw (you can also write command line programs) look like native S60 Applications and start much faster than Java-Midlets.
Peter
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Fights back against whom? Do you mean Apple or Android? I would say the battle is pretty much lost.
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Interesting definition of 'lost' when Symbian is still market leader.
With an estimate of 500 million symbian phone on at the same time (based on IMEI), I think symbian is a great untap market, since ovi store just born.
A smart developer will try to cash in this untap market as soon as possible.
well,
I need to stop writing here and start coding :)
The whole idea with the new Qt SDK is to get rid of the old Symbian API and Symbian C++.
Qt is based on Open C/C++ and the IDE and SDK is really easy to install and use, it only took me 10 minutes to get everything up and running, including on-device debugging and everything. It is really great.
Application speed of Qt programs is native.
Python's interpreted approach is slow.
/Henrik...
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
@Peter Sulzer:
The whole idea with the new Qt SDK is to get rid of the old Symbian API and Symbian C++. |
Also read:
Some truth about Eldar Murtzin review of Symbian^3 http://tinyurl.com/35wd7ow
well, there is still at least this to keep the most ameteurish developers out, no?
"the only up-front cost for developers distributing via the Ovi Store is a one off €50 fee to register as an Ovi Publisher."
Sounds like another store I know of..
Isn't that the sole metric of store success tho? :P
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
@Peter Sulzer:
Qt is based on Open C/C++ and the IDE and SDK is really easy to install and use, it only took me 10 minutes to get everything up and running, including on-device debugging and everything. It is really great. Application speed of Qt programs is native. |
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Python's interpreted approach is slow.
/Henrik... |
Peter
They have to do what Microsoft is now doing to lure developers to Windows Phone 7: pay them. Not with promises of prominent placement in the Ovi Store and development tools, although I'd include both of those.
I'm talking, literally cutting developers big checks with lots of zeros at the end, i.e. throwing bags of money at them to bribe them to develop for your platform.
Microsoft is now doing this, emulating their strategy of attrition with the X-box against the Playstation by spending, and spending, and spending some more until your competition says 'no mas'. Nokia should be doing this as well.
Well the current system hasn't prevented the Ovi store filling up with thousands of crappy applications, so Nokia may as well try something new, God knows they need to do something fast.
If you compare the Ovi store to the iTunes application store and Android Market there is a huge gulf in quality between Nokia's platform and Apple's and Google's. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of great applications for the iPhone and Android, there are maybe only a few dozen genuinely competitive Symbian applications, and an awful lot of dross.
Nokia need desperately need to regain developer mindshare.
Yes, sorry. You're right, got my definitions mixed up.
/Henrik...
@Peter Sulzer:
Qt DOES run on older devices - I test my code on an N97. The newly released Qt SDK works with Nokia's Smart Installer, so that e.g. older devices will get the Qt libs downloaded automatically if they are not installed on the device. Of course they still need to add more devices to the distribution support on Ovi Store, but right now N97Mini and X6 are supported. More S60 3rd and 5th will be added. So yes, Qt runs just fine on older devices.
I am not sure what your point is with "it's not true Symbian C++". I see this as a good thing, since Symbian C++ is horrible to work with in my opinion. Qt is based on Open C/C++, which is closer to what most developers consider the standard, and it performs exactly as well.
Besides being able to write native applications for both Symbian and Maemo/Meego from the same source code and just re-compiling is genius.
As for the idea that reducing the initial cost will bring a slew of rubbish apps, this doesn't seem to have done Apple or Google any harm. Apparently consumers get confidence from large numbers. I would expect that the best way to keep out low-quality 'spam' apps is something close to what Apple do (but without an agenda behind it) - that is, an approval process. Hopefully fast and fair to the developer, but an approval process nonetheless.
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Originally Posted by brendand
As for the idea that reducing the initial cost will bring a slew of rubbish apps, this doesn't seem to have done Apple or Google any harm. Apparently consumers get confidence from large numbers. I would expect that the best way to keep out low-quality 'spam' apps is something close to what Apple do (but without an agenda behind it) - that is, an approval process. Hopefully fast and fair to the developer, but an approval process nonetheless.
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but, I agree that apps need to be regulated. I hate to say that when browsing the fruit company apps store and also ovi store, I wouldn't know the quality of the games/program I'm gonna to download.
I think that nokia need to develop more than 3 star or 5 star rating system. or maybe nokia need to put information in the ovi store such as:
1. java apps, flash, native symbian or native QT.
2. optimize for 120x160? 240x320 (qVGA)? nHD?
3. Free version? apps supported version? required internet? etc?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65N20Y20100624
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Nokia's next flagship smartphone, the N8, will be the last N-series phone running Symbian software.
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"Going forward, N-series devices will be based on MeeGo," said Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson.
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Python adds an important facet to the many ways to create applications for Symbian devices.
Although it's understandable that Nokia wants to focus there developer support efforts on only a few solutions, they completely miss the point that there are a lot of non IT professional, spare time, hobbyist developers out there looking for an easy to learn, easy to code and inexpensive development environment. Python for Symbian is exactly this.
Have a look at the Python on Symbian book, currently evolving on the Symbian website, to get an impression how easy to understand Python code is and how fast you can create applications with Python for Symbian devices.
http://developer.symbian.org/wiki/in...hon_on_Symbian
If you are still not convinced, have a look and try some applications created with Python. A starting point is the PyS60 application list on Forum Nokia. It's far far from being complete, but may give a first insight.
http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.ph...0_applications
Although Python for Symbian currently has some relevant issues, it is possible to create apps that can't be distinguished from native apps by the end user in any way (despite the need to install the runtime...). The issues that should be solved immediately are:
- On most devices the user has to install the Python runtime and the PIPS library by themselves. Python 2.0 apps shows meaningful error messages when some dependencies are not installed and on some recent devices the runtime installation is started automatically. Nokia Smart Installer recently introduced for distributing the Qt runtime could be easily adapted to serve the Python runtime, too. http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.ph...er_for_Symbian
- Scrolling in listboxes on Symbian^1/5th Ed devices with kinetic scrolling isn't working correct.
Martin
PS I wrote a lot of Symbian apps with Python. Few of them are published, see: http://www.md-soft.info/
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