Interview: Getting Back to Symbian
Richard Bloor from All About Symbian recently interviewed Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement at Sony Ericsson about Satio™, PlayNow™ arena and Sony Ericsson’s plans to re-energize relationships with the Symbian developer community.
Richard: How will Sony Ericsson’s developer program re-engage with Symbian developers as the Satio™ comes to market?
Christopher: Although the transition from UIQ to the Symbian platform and the launch of Satio™ has taken a while, our relationship with the Symbian developer community has remained good. We will be looking to re-energize these relationships in the coming weeks and ensure the community is fully aware that we have a continuing commitment to Symbian, starting with Satio™.
The key for us is to demonstrate, as we are doing with Java and Flash, that we are committed to being conformant and compliant to the standards and base platform.
Our relationship with developers starts with a clear roadmap of platform support and our Developer World resources: very good documentation, information on our own APIs, tricks and tips, and tools to get developers coding as efficiently and effectively as possible. We do this equally for all the platforms we support.
Getting developers coding is only the beginning of the story. Our customers are telling us they want a phone that is unique and differentiated, not just another me-too device. Part of that differentiation will come from unique software, but more importantly unique software that enhances the user experience of a particular Sony Ericsson phone.
Richard: Doesn’t this approach run contrary to most developer’s strategies, to build to the platform to maximise application sales? Are you offering any incentives to developers for building applications to specific Sony Ericsson phones or user experiences?
Christopher: Building an application that is generic to a platform allows developers to take their application to multiple channels. However the disadvantage of this approach is that these markets are already crowded so gaining exposure and traction can be hard, sometimes very hard.
We believe it is far better for developers’ applications to be visible in a more focused channel. Gaining that visibility is all about thinking in terms of the user experience offered by a phone — such as Satio™ with its 12 mega pixel camera and strong focus on imaging and entertainment — and how to deliver applications that complement or enhance the user experience. Developers who can do this can gain an elevated position in the Sony Ericsson sales channels (PlayNow arena and Fun & downloads) that deliver application and content to our customers.
So we have two goals: to foster a community of developers who can build to a generic platform — be that Symbian, Java, or Flash — but also have the ability to build to specific user experiences and the consumer aspirations embodied in our phones.
Richard: How will Sony Ericsson’s developer program re-engage with Symbian developers as the Satio™ comes to market?
Christopher: Although the transition from UIQ to the Symbian platform and the launch of Satio™ has taken a while, our relationship with the Symbian developer community has remained good. We will be looking to re-energize these relationships in the coming weeks and ensure the community is fully aware that we have a continuing commitment to Symbian, starting with Satio™.
The key for us is to demonstrate, as we are doing with Java and Flash, that we are committed to being conformant and compliant to the standards and base platform.
Our relationship with developers starts with a clear roadmap of platform support and our Developer World resources: very good documentation, information on our own APIs, tricks and tips, and tools to get developers coding as efficiently and effectively as possible. We do this equally for all the platforms we support.
Getting developers coding is only the beginning of the story. Our customers are telling us they want a phone that is unique and differentiated, not just another me-too device. Part of that differentiation will come from unique software, but more importantly unique software that enhances the user experience of a particular Sony Ericsson phone.
Richard: Doesn’t this approach run contrary to most developer’s strategies, to build to the platform to maximise application sales? Are you offering any incentives to developers for building applications to specific Sony Ericsson phones or user experiences?
Christopher: Building an application that is generic to a platform allows developers to take their application to multiple channels. However the disadvantage of this approach is that these markets are already crowded so gaining exposure and traction can be hard, sometimes very hard.
We believe it is far better for developers’ applications to be visible in a more focused channel. Gaining that visibility is all about thinking in terms of the user experience offered by a phone — such as Satio™ with its 12 mega pixel camera and strong focus on imaging and entertainment — and how to deliver applications that complement or enhance the user experience. Developers who can do this can gain an elevated position in the Sony Ericsson sales channels (PlayNow arena and Fun & downloads) that deliver application and content to our customers.
So we have two goals: to foster a community of developers who can build to a generic platform — be that Symbian, Java, or Flash — but also have the ability to build to specific user experiences and the consumer aspirations embodied in our phones.
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