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."
damn that would affect all.. (Score:5, Funny)
the 7 devs
Re: (Score:1)
Re:damn that would affect all.. (Score:5, Funny)
the 7 devs
... and Snow White as well. (Sleeping Beauty could not be reached for comment, but it's rumored that she has transitioned to an Apple platform)
Re:damn that would affect all.. (Score:5, Funny)
(Sleeping Beauty could not be reached for comment, but it's rumored that she has transitioned to an Apple platform)
I'm pretty sure she's running Linux, hence being unable to resume from sleep.
Re: (Score:1)
(Sleeping Beauty could not be reached for comment, but it's rumored that she has transitioned to an Apple platform)
I'm pretty sure she's running Linux, hence being unable to resume from sleep.
Please correct me if I am wrong - the last time I checked, Linux has yet to incorporate the BSOD feature.
Re: (Score:3)
That's not what he was talking about. The reason it's funny is because it touches on something true: the fact that Linux doesn't wake up from suspend on some of the multitudinous hardware out there. I myself had this problem on brandname (HP) desktop, until I went and customized suspend with blacklist.conf [google.com].
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I updated my Vista notebook to 7 and had to go back because the only video driver available for the crappy ATI IGP would only let me resume from suspend once.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
then MS should call Windows 8 the same platform name on devices that can't run the same applications, no?
Re: (Score:3)
To be fair, in Linux drivers are part of the kernel while in Windows they're separate, so in Linux driver problems are kernel (Linux) problems.
Re: (Score:2)
In openmoko circles it's know as WSOD (white screen of death) and occurs sometimes when resume fails :)
Re: (Score:2)
Symbian still sells more then windows phone worldwide, so I imagine that there's quite a lot more then a handful of people developing for it.
Expectable? (Score:2, Funny)
Seriouslyable?
Re: (Score:1)
It's a perfectly fine word and is in every dictionary I checked. Moron.
Re: (Score:2)
What is wrong with you people today?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Expectable [thefreedictionary.com]
Qt/Trolletch (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I'm glad they spun off Qt before going back and regressing past the paid-commercial-development trolltech days for Qt.
Admittedly Trolltech used to offer free GPL noncommercial Qt licenses, but that sort of licensing isn't even possible with Windows Phone. Still painful to see open source transition into the most closed model of all.
Re: (Score:1)
You really put the Troll in trolletch (sic)
WP not dead yet (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
You may be right about the phone, but it takes a lot more than that to gain real mobile device market share. Microsoft and Nokia have so alienated the telecoms, who are the real gateway controlers here, that it is hard to see how they are ever going to get anywhere.
Re: (Score:1)
The Nokia Lumia 920 is a very interesting phone.
The problem is not the hardware although its specifications are average at best. Its the operating system, nobody wants a Windows Phone. Windows phones market share is 2%, Androids market share is 75%
Re: (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
Re: (Score:2)
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).
... and compete for users' attention with 100 other apps serving exactly the same need.
If you have an original idea/service, it might make sense to target iOS and Android first. Otherwise, opportunities might be better on Windows Phone. Filling up the application gap is only a matter of time, after which it's just another mobile platform to target if you want to add 10-20% to your user base.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, you can totally dominate that segment of the market on a marginal device. And if that should prove to be popular, the company that dominates on Android/iOS/Blackberry will take the couple of hours to port their well-known and popular app and crush you completely.
Re: (Score:1)
The fundamental thing is that people use what their friends use. If you go for such a "gap filling" exercise and then your market begins to take off, you are extremely vulnerable for a more popular iPhone app coming in and simply taking over. Every Windows Phone users knows something between 10 and 100 iPhone users for every other Windows phone user they know. Those tens of iPhone users mean that, any time in the next ten years or so, a popular iPhone app can just announce a Windows version and completel
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Not to mention I'd look into who's buying Windows phones and why. While it's anecdotal the people I've talked to that have been interested in it have mainly been business users who want better integration with other Microsoft products. Of course those people will buy apps too, but I'd say if one of your primary interests is third party apps you're not getting a Win8 phone in the first place, you're getting an Android or an iPhone. It would at least be foolish to assume that your sales are going to distribut
Re: (Score:3)
The Nokia Lumia 920 is a very interesting phone. Many developers just got one last week at the Build event (2000+ attendees). The Lumia 900 sold pretty well also. I think it is a little early to declare that Nokia and Window's Phone are dead.
What? 20 minutes? An hour?
Re: (Score:2)
900 sold pretty well?? IN WHAT UNIVERSE???? even 3250 apparently sold better(dig it up, it sucks).
Re: (Score:1)
Who is Window and why does (s)he have a phone?
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
Re: (Score:2)
Windows Phone is just beginning. In one week it had 40,000 apps, 2 weeks later 50,000 apps, and another 2 weeks later, 60,000 apps! Apple and Android market place has more apps but I'm pretty sire it didn't grow this fast in their beginnings.
How many of those are NOT worse than shovelware?
This is not just a WP complaint; the iOS and Android markets also proudly mention the large amount of apps they distribute. Most of those are absolute trash and worse than useless. Take any of the SDK/API example code, multiply by 100 and there's your first 20.000 apps right there. Take every remotely popular website, wrap it in a browser-embedding app; another 50.000 apps right there. Why is a huge number of apps something to be proud of if the sheer quantity
Re: (Score:1)
Windows Phone is just beginning. In one week it had 20,000 apps, 2 weeks later 50,000 apps, and another 2 weeks later, 60,000 apps! Apple and Android market place has more apps but I'm pretty sire it didn't grow this fast in their beginnings.
That's because all the employees, interns and so on at Microsoft are 'encouraged' to write a Windows Phone app by firing the ones that do not unless they have a note from their line managhttp://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11/06/0128255/nokia-suspends-its-free-developer-program#er excusing them. Also they MS bloggers, astroturfers etc have to mention the next Halo game - "Halo 5 - Flogging a dead Warthog", which will probably be a "Windows Phone 9" aka "XBox portable" exclusive the way things are going.
Dude, do you honestly think its only Microsoft employees who managed to code up and release 20,000-60,000 apps while still juggling their day job? Have you ever even attempted to write software?
Re: (Score:1)
Even DadHacker got roped in writing WP apps. That means the interns probably wear their little fingers down to the knuckle.
Re: (Score:2)
Dude, do you honestly think its only Microsoft employees who managed to code up and release 20,000-60,000 apps while still juggling their day job? Have you ever even attempted to write software?
Get RSS feed or a webpage, wrap it into app and here you go. One more app in 15 minutes.
Nokia never dominated the developer space (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Hey, here at Slashdot we are not spoiling a good Nokia bashing submission with boring facts.
And I see you've been put to your place already by somebody anonymous with a hell of a life.
Re:Nokia never dominated the developer space (Score:4, Interesting)
Hey, here at Slashdot we are not spoiling a good Nokia bashing submission with boring facts.
Riiight.... Would be terrible to have that. We should never bring up that the Symbian Market Place alone had 80k apps. We would certainly never mention that there were plenty of other places to get apps (e.g. the best SSH apps never made it to the market place at all). We should never mention that most of the "Apps" were actually applications as opposed to 90% being frontends for someone's blog [windowsphoneapplist.com] or pictures of food [windowsphone.com] and multi-lingual fart apps [windowsphoneapplist.com]. No, it would never do to suggest that a system like that had a more solid eco-system than Windows has on the mobile even though Windows has been there longer than Symbian.
And I see you've been put to your place already by somebody anonymous with a hell of a life.
Ahh yes; a person who posts for Nokia on Slashdot. A person who has sat there in the middle as his own country's main employer is destroyed to save it's American shareholder's investment in Microsoft. A person who has seen the company he works for ripped off; selling it's soul and still ending up displaced by a cheap Chinese clone maker. A person basically working to fuck his own countrymen by taking as much of their lifeblood as possible away from them and sending it to Redmond. That person is trying to intimidate anonymous posters on Slashdot by threatening to accuse them of having a "hell of a life". You think we will go off and commit suicide or something? Do you have a sense of irony?
Re: (Score:2)
We should never bring up that the Symbian Market Place alone had 80k apps.
So like... 1/10th of the number of apps both iOS and Android accrued in shorter time, and already surpassed by WP 7.5?
Face it, development for Symbian was pain and tears. Qt relieved it, but only to an extent. I was around when they were trying to design Qt Mobility APIs around both S60's existing APIs and various Nokia managers with requirement lists apparently thought up in bouts of Powerpoint creativity. It's good luck that most of that shit will die off because nobody in the right mind will want to impl
Maemo has got well over 1000 native apps (Score:2)
You can even run Android's Angry Birds on top now. It's been able to run WebOS games for ages.
Someone ported Homeworld a month ago. Opera Software are still updating Opera Mini. Someone's written a RAW camera app from the ground up.
In spite of Elop's attempt to [i]kill[/i] the platform, Maemo has the most committed developers I've ever seen.
Makes sense. (Score:2)
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: (Score:1)
For now, Nokia is downsizing and cost cutting big time. Their credit has been rated to junk [reuters.com] and the company is in the red [nokia.com]. They're trying to minimize all costs while the transition to WP is underway to avoid borrowing any money and slowly burning through their cash reservers instead. So it aligns very well with the big picture to cut all programs that are not part of their core business right now.
Should Windows Phone really fail, they can always buy out Jolla or some of the other startup companies by ex-Nok
Re:Makes sense. (Score:5, Insightful)
For now, Nokia is downsizing and cost cutting big time. Their credit has been rated to junk [reuters.com] and the company is in the red [nokia.com]. They're trying to minimize all costs while the transition to WP is underway
Yeah, just like SGI minimized all costs while transitioning to Windows NT. Selling your soul to MS has worked amazingly well for companies in the past.
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:Bet has not failed yet (Score:5, Insightful)
The bet on WP8 is far from having failed...To count Microsoft out is foolish, they have a lot of money and a lot of strategic connections in the phone world
It is true WP8 has not failed, but then as yet it unproven technology, going against Android which has captured 75% of the market and Apple 14.9%. In fact all I am seeing is the same arguments from the same fans...and yes I do mean you, that I heard with WP7...and 7.5, and where are they now 2%. The sad part is the main reason for its failure is Microsoft not only doesn't have connections in the Phone world, it upset most of Nokia's.
Its true Microsoft has lots of money, but lets face it so do Google and Apple and they also have market share, an established product, and a devoted following.
Re: (Score:1)
It is true WP8 has not failed, but then as yet it unproven technology, going against Android which has captured 75% of the market and Apple 14.9%.
Android may have 75% of the market, but Apple is making 71% of the profits.
Yes, Apple's small market share is responsible for the majority of the industry's profits.
Samsung is number two, with 37% of the industry's profits.
HTC makes 1% of the profits.
How do you end up with three companies making 109% of the profits? Because everyone else is losing money.
Microsoft makes more in patent licensing fees from Android than Nokia/LG/Motorola/RIM/etc make from selling Android phones.
Xbox 8 (Score:3)
Over the next year Microsoft is going to push Windows 8 in all its incarnations.
All? Will there be an Xbox 8, or will that have to wait for Windows 9?
Re: (Score:2)
All? Will there be an Xbox 8, or will that have to wait for Windows 9?
Well they did push out Xbox SmartGlass along side the Windows 8 launch. That along with all the recent dashboard updates pretty much gives you the "Windows 8 experience" on the Xbox. So yes, Xbox 8 is already here.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, Windows 9 will feature...not tiles...but Pyramids!! You'll have 4 sides upon which to view the sacred artefacts. Each will call up a different aspect of the underlying app. And when you get bored, you'll be able to flip them to see their bottoms. This will reveal the inner guts to how the app connects to other apps. They will show little mechanical men moving levers, pushing buttons, etc.
In Windows 10, the Pyramids will be shown to be landing platforms for a rather nasty race of Galactic Tyrants with an
Re: (Score:2)
The bet on WP8 might not have failed yet, but WP7 was an unmitigated disaster, that failed to convert most of the previous Nokia buyers. Even being given away in large quantities the lumias failed to attract more than a few Microsoft fans, and even some of those got upset with the way the platform got osborned with the announcement of WP8 and of the impossibility to update WP7 phones to it.
Re: (Score:2)
It comes down to Windows Phone and iPhone. All else are amateurs
...and yet Android managed to capture 75% market share compared to Apples 14.9% [and dropping] and Windows Phone [still behind RIM and Symbian] as 2%.
I wont address all the other things wrong with your post. I just wanted to point out how far away your post is from reality.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Don't forget, it wasn't very many years ago that Android was under 2% compared with the likes of Blackberry, and a bit further back Apple could only dream of having the market share Palm had.
The mobile space changes rapidly. Consumers are fickle. iOS is growing old, and people are becoming bored with it. Android might be popular (hey, the devices are cheap), but a lot of people with those devices aren't really enthralled with them. If there's anything the computing and especially the mobile space should
Re: (Score:3)
The mobile space changes rapidly
No they don't. New markets replace old markets, and in this instance Smartphones replace Dumbphones. In reality iOS and Android are mature popular products pretending otherwise is understating the task Microsoft has.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple has had iPhone sale growth of 58% YoY and 56% revenue growth YoY. Yeah people are totally bored of iOS. LOL.
I don't believe people are bored with iOS. It is a weak argument because Windows Phone is has few advantages and many disadvantages over iOS.
but your figures are almost worthless, revenue does not mean what you think it means. This year Google have has a massive revenue increase...they bought Motorola, but they actually lost $500Million just in that division because of Motorola . As for sales growth, Apple have actually seen a market share drop from 23% down to 14.9% in a couple of quarters apple are simply
Re: (Score:1)
. Consumers are fickle. iOS is growing old, and people are becoming bored with it. Android might be popular (hey, the devices are cheap), but a lot of people with those devices aren't really enthralled with them.
My PCs run Windows and my phones run Android? Does that mean I'm 'enthralled' by the OSs? Not at all, the reason I use them is because there are a lot of software and hardware vendors that are committed to the platform. That means I've got a good choice of devices when I buy new one and good choice of applications to run on it. I.e. it doesn't really matter if the OS is a bit ugly or slow, because you can always buy a faster device and you spend time looking at applications, not the OS.
Before Android the mo
Re: (Score:2)
"Nokia has sold over 100 million of it's Windows Phone"
You sure on that number, can you cite a source? I know last quarter they only sold 3-4 million Lumia's, so I doubt they sold almost 100 million in the preceding 3 quarters
I have 10 bucks. (Score:1)
Can I buy Nokia's burning corpse already?
Re: (Score:2)
Can I buy Nokia's burning corpse already?
Not yet and Unless Elop to really really...but he has to really try Nokia has 3 valuable assets just not a mobile phone business anymore Patents; Nokia Siemens Networks and Navteq. Now what these are worth we will probably find out when someone does buy Nokias burning corpse...its interesting to see who it is, but it will be for Billions.
Re: (Score:1)
Course, six months to a year later, whoever buys it will have to write down the 'asset' value to a small fraction of what was paid...
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry no, I don't have change for big bills.
That naughty Mr Elop, how we all hate him (Score:1)
Includes: "...One year of Windows Phone Developer Center membership. A $99 (USD) retail value..." It says here [nokia.com]
So this makes Nokia a rip-off merchant how exactly? MSFT maybe but they're only charging the going rate [apple.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
No good guy, no bad guy (Score:2)
Let's get real here (Score:5, Insightful)
which once was one of the mainstays of its domination of the smartphone market.
No, just no. It's domination of the smartphone market was due to the fact that it made pretty good hardware and OK software at a time when nobody else could even manage one of the 2. However as others stepped up in both categories, Nokia was slow to react and that is what put it in it's current position.
I'm with you. (Score:4, Interesting)
Nokia had developers because they had the dominant platform. Websites looked like garbage at the time one phones, so companies wanted to program for Symbian. With Symbian they could easily make apps which were slightly to somewhat better than garbage. So they did.
Once any other company came in and made better hardware (RIM first) and a better OS/UI toolkit (Apple), it was over for Symbian and Nokia was put in a tough spot.
Re: (Score:2)
I worked on the following app on S60 (2nd and 3rd edition) which was based off Symbian - I mostly did porting, build and small feature work, with other clever folk doing the glory work, but anyway :
http://darlamack.blogs.com/darlamack/2007/11/cinema-3d-by-em.html [blogs.com]
http://www.mobyware.net/nokia-n97-n97-mini-device-900/system-utilities-tag/dames-anime-girl-download-free-17752.html [mobyware.net]
I have yet to see anything quite so innovative on other platforms - though, presumably, that is mostly because the platform makers (A
Expectable? YES! (Score:1)
Not to be harsh towards the submitter -- the more so though towards Nokia:
This is a non-story!
Nokia: get away already!
Expectable? (Score:1)
Nokia 920 phones distributed at MS Build 2012 (Score:2)
Re:Nokia 920 phones distributed at MS Build 2012 (Score:4, Interesting)
So, the phone got released last week, and they are only "close" to having the SDK available?
So, that means for the first 6 months we will only have simple demo apps, and quick "fart" apps until everybody gets up to speed, and the big dev houses get their act together. I honestly don't see the platform inertia lasting that long. People who have phone who can't get the Pandora, and other tangential apps they are used to will drop it for the ones who do. By the time the big apps come, there won't be any users left.
No developers (Score:3)
No community, no applicators, so no product interest.
Even Microsoft understand this now, to an extent, tho 'full' VS is still far to expensive if you ask me. You should be giving tools away for nothing, to lock people into your products.
Nokia has NOT suspended a Free Developer Program (Score:1)
Re:to be expected (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (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: (Score:3)
Excuse me, but the proper term is "Logomachist".
Thank you; that is very helpful. Please note, however, that you should not have capitalized "logomachist" in your reply.
Re: (Score:2)
In English, if you understood it, it's a word. It may not be common or even considered correct, but it's still a word. There is no governing body of the English language.
Re: (Score:2)
There is no governing body of the English language.
Many have tried to become that body and failed. We are left with the counter-intuitive result that many of the glorious inconsistencies in English are the result of attempts to eliminate the same.
Re: (Score:1)
I am the LAW of the English language. You are crime.
Re: (Score:1)
You may have chosen a poor example, since xyzzy [wikipedia.org] is a fairly well-known word among the Slashdot demographic.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, it's a perfectly cromulent word.
Oxford English Dictionary says: you err (Score:2)
Re:Windows Phone is no Slouch... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
And my old Galaxy S2 . Honestly, there was nothing mentioned that I cannot already do but better.
Re: (Score:1)
The old Nokia N900 already did this and more.
Note that pinning a app on the homescreen is the same as a widget, they may have given it a fancy name but that doesnt change it.
Also, I can install ubuntu and debian on my N900(debian in a virtual machine from the application screen). Also it has a Android port(NITdroid).
So yeah, stop being silly. Many of those things already have been done in the past and are already present in other OS's.
Where are your thumbs? (Score:3)
Built in X-Box Live and Zune. Having a system built into a phone for online gaming etc that has been tested and proven for years is great.
In games for Windows Phone 7, how do you feel where your thumbs are [pineight.com] relative to the on-screen directional pad and trigger buttons at the sides of the screen so that you can press them while looking at the action in the middle of the screen? Android solves this with devices that use physical buttons (the Xperia Play and the forthcoming Archos GamePad) and a Wii Remote driver application [ccpcreations.com].
Live tiles (Score:2)
Even when I'm streaming Netflix on the go I'm not really worried about the battery.
Only because your monthly data allowance will probably give out before the battery does.
No going into apps, no swiping over to your widgets.
All that means is that app icons (tiles that aren't live) and widgets (tiles that are live) are listed in the same list instead of being separated into two lists. Big whoop.
Built in Bing Search
The Local Scout feature you describe is part of Google Now on Android 4.1. But the music search and vision features look interesting.
But one killer feature of Android is its availability on prepaid carriers, so that people don't have to sign a 2-ye
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
All right, all right. We get it Mr. Ballmer.
Login next time, will you?