Nokia "Suspends" Its Free Developer Program 136
jbernardo writes "Nokia has put in deep freeze its free developer program, the launchpad. Now, in the Developer Programs page, one can only see a pitch for a paid 'Nokia Premium Developer Program,' and below, in the Nokia Developer Pro and Developer Launchpad box, there is a text merely stating that Nokia are not currently accepting new applications for Nokia Developer Launchpad and Nokia Developer Pro programs. With most (if not all) Launchpad memberships already expired, seems like Nokia no longer is interested in the developer community, which once was one of the mainstays of its domination of the smartphone market. Of course, that domination was destroyed by Elop and its 'burning platforms' memo, together with the failed bet on Windows Phone 7, so maybe giving up on developers would also be expectable."
Re:to be expected (Score:5, Informative)
Bet has not failed yet (Score:5, Informative)
The bet on WP8 is far from having failed. It suffered a major setback my Microsoft not allowing SP7 phones to upgrade to 8, but that was not a fatal blow...
Over the next year Microsoft is going to push Windows 8 in all its incarnations. They are already making a strong push for developers to write apps, having a good stable of apps already and giving away a Nokia phone and Surface tablet to every Microsoft developer at the Build conference.
To count Microsoft out is foolish, they have a lot of money and a lot of strategic connections in the phone world - and on top of that WP8 is actually a pretty well designed system that will attract developers of its own accord just by being pleasant to build for.
Re:Makes sense. (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia no longer sell phones with their own OS. Why do they need to continue supporting developer programs for software they no longer support?
...because they need options, because right now, windows is the burning platform. Unfortunately the goal seems to be to continue throwing good money after bad.
Re:WP not dead yet (Score:3, Informative)
Thats just silly. Android is neither a cell phone nor a company... it is just a VM running on linux therefore it has zero market share.
Let's put this really simply. If you have an app and you want people to run it, you have a choice of binary formats to put it in. If you put it out in Android's binary format, it will run on "75%" of the new phones sold this year (I'd guess 65% actually). If you put it out in iOS format it will run on, say, 20%. If you put it out in RIM's format it's likely to run on about 5%. If you put it out on Bada it will run on about 3% of phones. If you put it out in Windows Phone's format and we assume even a generous 50% growth caused by Windows phone 8, which would exceed every recent new version of Windows for Mobile phones, then it will run on about 3% of phones.
From the point of view of an App developer what you have to know is that, if you already have the facilities in place to support a Bada port of your app in parallel with you iOS, Android, and RIM ports, and if you really get serious ROI from the Bada version, then you should maybe consider producing a Windows Phone port. Otherwise forget it, come back in 2015 and have a look at the market again.
Producing ports for different operating systems isn't, as we have always been told for Linux, free. You are more likely to get widespread attention and grass roots marketing for your Windows version of you app if the iOS app is successful than if the Windows version is successful. Now is the chance to take advantage of your competitors who are distracted by Microsoft's Windows marketing and try to overtake them by concentrating all your efforts on the successful platforms.
Re:to be expected (Score:3, Informative)
What are you talking about? Here's its entry [google.com] in a dictionary from the year 1806. Please don't give the rest of us spelling/grammar Nazis a bad name.
Excuse me, but the proper term is "Logomachist" [thefreedictionary.com].
Re:damn that would affect all.. (Score:4, Informative)
Remember that when windows encounters a problem like this, it is the driver/hardware's fault.
When this happens to linux, it is because linux is not ready for prime time.
At least, this is how it usually is spun.