PreEmptive Solutions is an analytics service which focuses on the monitoring of the latest applications, both on and off the mobile platform. We were pleased to be given the opportunity to talk to its Chief Marketing Officer, Sebastian Holst, about the considerable developments in the market of portable devices as he is very familiar with business strategies and their outcomes within the world of mobile technology. Namely, the announcement of a co-operation between software giant Microsoft and Nokia, currently the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones.
Mr Holst, thank you very much for agreeing to talk to us.
Nokia and Microsoft made big news this month by announcing a collaboration, which could potentially see Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system become a true contender in the smartphone market if it manages to fully utilise the popularity of Nokia’s existing hardware. Do you think they will manage to transfer a sufficient proportion of Nokia’s user base to make this a reality?
Microsoft and Nokia have put together a compelling roadmap that should result in a seismic shift in the smartphone market. Of course, once a roadmap is in hand, the key becomes execution. We see, as an app analytics and protection supplier across mobile platforms (and off of the phone as well), there is no question that developer tools and – by extension – developer productivity for WP7 app development is materially superior to its more established alternatives. The challenge was, up until this announcement, that there were so few users of WP7 phones. Microsoft must convince Symbian developers (and Android, iOS, etc.) that a) they will build better apps faster targeting WP7 b) there is a market on WP7 and (last but not least) that their R&D investment can, to a reasonable extent, be transferred to other platforms as/when appropriate. Getting this message out quickly and credibly is the key to their success.
Nokia’s previous go-to operating system, Symbian, was very versatile and would hence be seen in a variety of their devices, from the fun to the functional. However, Windows Phone 7 was met with criticism upon release as it has strict hardware requirements and a non-customisable interface. Do you believe that Nokia’s migration to Windows Phone will mean a large change in the variation in devices which they produce?
Software and hardware evolve and both Nokia and Microsoft obviously recognize this. Will this relationship impact the device roadmap? How can it not? Does that necessarily translate to a reduced device catalogue? Over time, I see no reason why that should be the case.
A new operating system such as Windows Phone can never be truly successful unless it obtains a healthy developing community to produce third party applications. However, with the idea of developing for iOS and Android now being a safe bet, what incentive would there be for a developer to choose to create applications for yet another platform?
The maturity and sophistication of the WP7 development environment is born from decades of focusing on the developer inside Microsoft. A smartphone app is truly the best of three worlds: Classic native phone apps, web experiences, and the rich computing client that has historically been tied to a desktop. The developer experience can either improve in-step with this quantum jump in capabilities or, conversely, be crushed by it. Developers will soon recognize that they can build smarter, faster, and cheaper on a WP7 development platform and then reuse much of the IP, design, test plans, etc. to quickly hit any other platform. The same cannot be said for Android or iOS. This, combined with the huge opportunity that the Nokia partnership represents, makes an extremely compelling case for targeting WP7 first.
In fact, we are seeing this move clearly already with iOS and Android. In a survey we are preparing for publication right now, we are seeing that mobile app developers (defined as developers already writing to two or more mobile platforms) are now migrating to WP7 four times faster than .NET developers (defined as developers who are only targeting WP7). In an initial survey completed in December soon after the WP7 launch, only 4% of developers who were installing our mobile analytic and protection for WP7 were “mobile app developers.” This indicated that the very first developers to target WP7 were already Microsoft devotees versus serious mobile app developers exploring WP7 as an alternative/incremental mobile platform.
However, in the latest wave of developers, the percentage of “true mobile developers” has more than quadrupled. There is no question that developers who identify themselves as mobile app developers first rather than iOS, .NET, or Android developers are now building for WP7, too.
Platform share for those developers targeting multiple mobile platforms are (in addition to WP7):
•Android 74%
•iOS 66%
•RIM 15%
•Symbian 6%
In the second quarter of last year, Symbian-based devices accounted for 43.5% of all smartphone sales. Since it was clearly a popular operating system, would you say that Nokia have made a good business decision by deciding to phase this platform out in favour of one which is currently obscure?
The “operating system” business is all-consuming. If this is not your core business and competency, then you should get out of that business ASAP – or never get into it. I think it is a courageous move that is obviously making a lot of Symbian stakeholders uncomfortable, but there is no doubt that developers have a much stronger future and immediate opportunities in front of them that were non-existent before this move.
We would like to once again extend our gratitude to Sebastian Holst for sharing his opinion on these recent developments. Keep reading Mobile Developer Magazine to find out the latest on what the Nokia-Microsoft collaboration holds in store for the mobile industry.
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