14 DAY TRIAL // Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has just announced plans to simplify its developer offering, through enabling app builders to come up with solutions for both Symbian and MeeGo platforms through the adoption of Qt as the sole application development framework.
At the same time, the company announced that it would no longer refer to Symbian^3 or Symbian^4 under these names, so that users enjoy “a constant improvement in the experience of their Symbian-based Nokia products.”
The move towards adopting Qt as the only application development framework should result in having applications that would work both on Symbian and MeeGo products.
At the same time, the company announced that it plans on offering support for the HTML5 standard for the development of apps compatible both with Symbian and MeeGo.
“To demonstrate its commitment to the new offering, Nokia will develop its own future applications using Qt for a more consistent experience and better integration of applications and services,” the company announced.
At the same time, the mobile phone maker noted that it would focus on “Qt as a robust, tried and tested framework that unlocks the hardware, software and service capabilities of the existing Nokia smartphone range as well as creating huge opportunities for future Symbian and MeeGo products.”
A faster creation of rich user interfaces should be enabled through the introduction of Qt Quick into the Qt framework, while the built in support for HTML5 in Qt would complement Nokia's plans to support the standard in Web browsers.
“One benefit of this simplified approach is that planned and future improvements in Symbian will be developed in Qt and will be compatible with the existing Symbian^3 platform release,” the company announced.
However, it continued stating that future releases of the Symbian platform are expected to arrive to Symbian^3 users too, and that the previous release-based model for the platform would be replaced by a continuous evolution approach.
“Nokia will no longer refer to Symbian^3 or Symbian^4,” the company said.
“We're making strategic technology decisions that will accelerate our ability to offer the strongest possible opportunity for developers and the richest possible experience for consumers,” Rich Green, CTO of Nokia, stated.
“For developers, it will open up a huge installed customer base for their applications. For consumers, it means a more compelling engagement with their Nokia product in terms of access to the best applications in the marketplace and a constantly improving product experience.
“We firmly believe that the choices we have made will not only mean significant opportunity and success for our developer partners, but for Nokia as well,” he continued. Take a look at the video below to learn more on what he had to say.