Not written from a Symbian viewpoint, but Michael Mace's latest missive, about smartphone/PDA ecosystems, is worth a read if you're a developer or if you're connected to a manufacturer. My initial reaction (again) is that Nokia's Download! system has the potential to be just as game-changing as the Apple example quoted - and it utterly defeats me why Nokia hasn't poured resources into this area.
Read on in the full article.
> and it utterly defeats me why Nokia hasn't poured resources into this area.
Guys, with your connections, surely a great lead in for a quick call/email to Nokia to get some 1st hand feedback on this question? Come on, how about it?! There can't be any Symbian/Nokia fan out there who wouldn't like to see Nokia Download have the same sort of success as the iPhone AppStore...
Everyone was impressed last month when Apple announced moving 30 million downloads through the new iPhone Apps Store, bringing in $30 million of revenue (or a million dollars per day). Well, growth more than doubled this month, bringing a total of 100 million downloads (and somewhere around another $70 million of software revenue).
Even if growth hits a plateau today and sales stay where they are right now, by next year Apple will have sold a billion iPhone apps, bringing in around a billion dollars of revenue. This is where BIG money is made for Apple and I think Nokia cannot afford to lose in this space.
This is the Apple's business model - Selling Hardware Through Software! The nice thing about this business model is that the software is not even developed by Apple! Just look at iTunes Apps Store, out of over two thousand titles, only a handful are produced by Apple!