Nokia Developer Summit 2009

Nokia Developer Summit took place in MonteCarlo, during April 28-29, and all I can say is that it was a GREAT event.

Two days of talks, keynotes, presentations, meetings and good people from all around the world made of this event a great opportunity to learn about current and future Nokia plans and to share opinions and thoughts with other developers.

Summarizing all it up, three were the main point on which Nokia is actually focusing:

  • Web Runtime widgets: a great opportunity for both Web and mobile developers to create cool user experiences for mobile phones, by using easy-to-learn technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and integrating with lower level device functionalities (via Platform Services), and with the opportunity to put content also on device home screen.
  • QT: this will be, hopefully, the framework leveraging Symbian C++ developers from all the chaos that has always ruled this area. QT promises to be a big step toward ease of learning and use. While other strong mobile platforms are emerging, Nokia had really no more time to focus on developers: apart from giving them a powerful and open platform, this is the time to help them to create applications without worrying about the platform itself.
  • OVI: the Nokia application store is finally near its official launch, and Nokia gave the chance to preview it on real devices. Good user experience, on my opinion, but only distribution and real usage will tell how pervasive it can be (what about an Ovi Store home widget?).

What about the other technologies? Flash Lite is stronger than ever, and if you’re a Flash Lite developer, don’t miss out the many opportunities out there to promote yourself and your apps, as the Open Screen Project, Nokia’s Calling All Innovators and the Flash Lite Developer Challenge.

What if you’re a Java ME developer: well, nothing new, really. Just the confirmation that mobile ecosystem is rapidly expanding and, if you don’t want to be left behind, you really have to take a look around. There will be always need of Java ME developers, but coolest things, in this moment, are elsewhere (and telling this as a Java ME enthusiast is a bit sad :) ).

Hackathon

Apart from the main stream of talks, a tight competition took place among 10 developer teams from all around the globe, that were able to create great looking WRT widgets, from ideas directly coming from consumers, in an incredibly short time. Check out the complete team list here, and congratulate with them all! :)

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