To attract more developers on its side

Sep 4, 2009 10:39 GMT  ·  By

Espoo, Finland-based mobile phone maker Nokia recently announced at the Nokia World conference the release of the new Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs, a series of solutions meant to enable developers build applications with integrated services and native-like user interfaces much easier than before. There is a series of web and mobile APIs the company intends to roll-out, including the Ovi Maps Player API and the Ovi Navigation Player API, which should enable the development of advanced location solutions.

“This is just the beginning. We will work in close cooperation with developers to evolve the offering, starting with social location solutions,” said Niklas Savander, EVP, Services, Nokia. “Our goal is clear, and that is to make it effortless for our partners to create highly appealing, context-relevant applications that consumers will find indispensable.”

Nokia also announced that it had been working with various partners around the world to come up with example applications for the Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs, including partnerships with Lonely Planet, Deutsche Bahn, Associated Press, Qype, National Geographic, Deutsche Telekom Medien and Langenscheidt.

An Ovi for Developers beta program has been launched as well, and the company invites developers to join in on its Forum Nokia Developer Community site to receive access to the Ovi SDK Beta and Ovi APIs. Nokia noted that all applications created with the use of the new solutions are to be included in its Ovi Store starting next year, so that the applications are available to a wide range of users all around the world.

Developers who will register on the company's site will have access to a technology preview, which includes the Ovi SDK Beta, a set of tools for the creation of software solutions for the Symbian and Maemo platforms, as well as for the web, which also includes the Ovi APIs and Ovi User Interface (UI) libraries. The first Ovi APIs are Ovi Maps Player API (powered by Ovi Maps, it includes more than 180 country maps, location-based search, detailed place info, vector-based maps and other features), and Ovi Navigation Player API (with walk and drive navigation features like pedestrian navigation, turn-by-turn car navigation and route planning).

“We've been very pleased with our relationship with Nokia,” said Henri Moissinac, Director of Mobile, Facebook. “Since its release in June, the Facebook application for Nokia is available for download in more than 150 countries and is currently one of the most distributed applications in the Ovi Store. Needless to say, it's really exciting to be working so closely with the largest handset manufacturer in the world to bring our 250 million users worldwide an innovative Facebook experience on their mobile devices - and this is just the beginning.”