what Nokia should do to lure developers to Symbian
First of all, Nokia should release estimates for the total number of apps for Symbian out there right now. Out there, not in the Ovi Store. I’m sure a forecasting/statistics department could do that.
Then release a “total number of apps for Symbian” stat that adds the number above to the number of apps in the Ovi store.
Is this cheating? Actually, no, it’s not. It’s the truth.
Next, get cosy with small developers. No, that shouldn’t mean hire them, but work with them. Invest in their apps. People will jump to point out Jan Ole Suhr, famous for Gravity, a Twitter client that’s very popular due in no small part to lack of serious competition. So, yeah. Invest in Jan’s company. I can’t really define the legalities of all this right now, but the idea would be to take a couple hundred (yes hundred) such developers and help them. By investing money or by volunteering Nokia developers to work alongside them on the apps. To get better integration into the OS, or just to iterate quickly.
Make sure any developer that wants to create an app for Symbian has access to devices (via long-term loans or outright giving them for free). Or at least give them all access to a service like DeviceAnywhere.
Then move on to middle-tier developers, such as Epocware. Make sure they have all they need to keep developing apps for Symbian and come up with new ideas (it’s been a while) for apps on Symbian. Again, not just put out a press release saying how much you love developers. There should be a dedicated team for each developer inside Nokia. So, to continue with my example, 3-4 people should be the “Epocware team” in Nokia, ambassadors, if you wish, for the developer within Nokia.
Next, reach out to the idiotic big developers/companies that only have apps on iOS and Android and work with them to bring their apps to Symbian. If you have to, create the apps for them. It doesn’t matter. But don’t just rush some half-baked WebRunTime widget to the market. Work on complex functionality for these apps (if possible, exceeding that on the competing platforms), thus showcasing what Symbian can do. Do this for 30-40 ‘big’ apps on the other platforms, and the rest of the companies having apps developed only for iOS and/or Android may wake up and remember which the highest selling smartphone OS on the planet is.
And obviously, invest a LOT in hyping all this up. Invest more in WOM World, but also look at creating more events around Symbian and simply flood the market with ads. Have a N8 Make My App style competition every week. Give away 10-20 phones per day for 6-8 months, in different contests, but engaging ones, not just dumb RT this and win type stuff.
Engage more on Twitter and Facebook. Have dedicated accounts/groups/pages for developers, for troubleshooting for developers, and for each service and each individual phone you sell. With employees there to help, naturally.
There.
Easy, step-by-step instructions.
Will any of this actually happen?
Probably not.
Why, you ask?
Well, because Nokia’s biggest issue is not the hardware, nor the software of any of their devices, nor their services strategy. It’s a mentality that, despite the best efforts of many, many employees and middle-management people, still goes something like “here, buy this thing - now leave us alone until you buy the next thing”.
More is needed than their recent countless reorgs for this to change, sadly. And as long as they’re still first in everything (well, except AdMob stats - remember those?), why try to change?
I don’t see a big enough motivating factor. And they don’t either. Which is why things will continue to incrementally get better, but at a much slower pace than they could. And sane people’s perceptions of the company will remain the same.
