Hi,
Are any of you (or do you know of any) successful freelance programmers for the symbian OS? The idea of developing for symbian has always appealed, and I've gone as far as getting a good grounding in C++ and compiling (very) simple applications for my 9210. But to build serious applications clearly takes a lot of time and effort, and I was just wondering if it's worth persevering.
Any thoughts?
F.
Have you tried,Domi's FExplorer? It is an excelent file explorer and it is freeware,so Dominique is the man 😊
Read the news: http://allaboutsymbian.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6376
What about faquick's palette extender: http://allaboutsymbian.com/newsdisplay2.php?id=6684
So it can be done. I suppose what I'm trying to get at is whether anyone is earning a (hopefully good) living as a freelance symbian developer/programmer. Freeware apps are brilliant, but they don't bring in the cash 😞
Symbian is still a relatvley young platform so there aren't hundreds of these people about, but they do exist. Fr example the authors at Symbainware started on their own, but have since grown a bt. The Cibenxi folks were a one man band (even now only two people I think). Some have been around even longer. (e.g. author if Pdf+).
Rafe
Don't quit your day job. It makes a very nice addition to your income. And if you get an application that really sells, then you can use that as a launching pad to do it full time.
Just remember that the first app will take a very long time to get to a stage where it can be published. And it may not sell as you predict. Until the stage where the money start rolling in, you will have to sustain yourself (and anyone working for you).
Thanks for you thoughts. If Symbian roll out the OS on a big scale over the coming years then the economics of scale will really kick in for good apps. But then the market would pull in the bigger players, too, perhaps impacting on freelance application developers. A cystal ball would be useful of course 😉