Nokia Releases Qt SDK For Mobile Development

An anonymous reader writes "Nokia has released its unified Qt-based SDK for cross-platform development for Symbian and MeeGo (plus Maemo) devices. The blurb reads: 'Today sees the release of the Nokia Qt SDK, a single easy-to-use software development kit (SDK) for Symbian and Meego application development. Developers can now develop, test, and deploy native applications for Nokia smartphones and mobile computers. The beta version of the SDK is available for download from today, ready for developers to kick off development for new devices, including the just-announced Nokia N8.'"

Comments

Alternatives to C++

[CondeZer0]

I wish Nokia provided some better alternatives to C++ for development on Symbian.

Java is not any better (and in many ways worse), and the S60 python port is nice, but it doesn't quite cut it for writing things like games in such limited hardware.

I would love to be able to build Symbian apps in Google's Go, it is an ideal language for secure, fast, lightweight programs for mobile apps.

Re:Alternatives to C++

[loufoque]

I wish Nokia provided some better alternatives to C++ for development on Symbian.

If you don't like that language, just use another language that compiles to it (or a subset of it). Most languages can be compiled to C.
Nothing should even prevent you from compiling to machine code in most cases.

I would love to be able to build Symbian apps in Google's Go, it is an ideal language for secure, fast, lightweight programs for mobile apps.

Now you're just trying to be cool and trendy. You should have mentioned Erlang to get extra cool points.
You can write perfectly secure, fast and lightweight programs in C++. Actually, you can code however you want in C++, since it's basically a meta-language: feel free to reinvent a language within the language; not that the standard dialect -- which, ironically enough, is little used -- is any bad though.

Re:Can this be what Symbian needs?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but it could be what Nokia needs to transition Symbian developers to Maemo/Meego instead of losing them all to Android.

When done right, crossplatform is always good, even if you've got no use for one of the platforms.

It started to sound funny

[Ilgaz]

Even more sad, Symbian will be the standard OS on _all_ Nokia low end to mid end phones. I speak about 100M devices/year and rising.

Well, companies and developers who takes Symbian market serious and watching the World outside Gizmodo/Engadget land enjoys millions of downloads and a huge money, recently it was uncovered that largest share of ad supported apps comes from Symbian handsets.

Now with Qt unified release, it means first time, both Symbian and Linux (extend it to Android, easy) UI code, the most hard and demanding one these days can be unified. It isn't some Sun Java promise either, I use KDE 4 apps/parts in OS X, compiled from exact same code.

The most unfortunate news (!) is, Symbian gigantic market share even rises even without the massive S40 to S60 transition.

Re:It started to sound funny

[mdwh2]

I think this will be interesting to watch - already there's devices like the Nokia 5230, offering Symbian on a phone costing about £100 on PAYG.

The distinction between "smart" phones and "feature" phones is rather ill-defined, and the only clear thing that the low end "feature" phones lack these days is a "smartphone" OS. Give them Symbian, and you're there. It won't have the extra bells and whistles that people get on more expensive phones, such as GPS, wireless access, and CPU/RAM will be more limited, but they'll be running Internet an apps on a smartphone OS.

The other one to watch will be Android - I'm not sure what the cheapest Android phone is at the moment, but I can't help wondering why all the non-Nokia manufacturers aren't jumping at the chance to run Android rather than a custom "feature" phone OS. Unless either the fees are too high, or the system requirements too high, for low end phones.

Of course Apple will be nowhere to be seen, if they stick with their usual philosophy of making money by selling expensive products at the high end.

Re:It started to sound funny

[GameboyRMH]

For Maemo, sales are small to nonexistent, the app store is widely regarded to be a joke. But who needs an app store with so many great free apps available? Sure it's not great for the aspiring I Am Rich: Maemo Edition developer, but it's great for users.

Re:Too little too late.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually Nokia, by using Qt is the only one which doesn't reinvent the wheel.
Application made with Qt will work on Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, Symbian, Megoo etc..

Nokia, even if their smartphone are not perfect are really doing some nice stuff and are the one which are not playing alone like Apple, Google or RIM.

Re:Can this be what Symbian needs?

[MrNaz]

Qt plus Nokia's commitment to open source plus Nokia's affinity for Python I think will make it the overall winner, despite being behind in the smartphone development race. Building apps using Qt+Pyside should be far nicer and allow for a very modern programming approach with fewer mobile-specific development skills necessary given that Python+Qt are a very common combination for desktop apps as well.

Also, Nokia is the only company that seems to be doing the open source mobile platform right. Android is only half open source, and realistically, it's only open to OEMs. Garage developers are about as welcome in Google's ecosystem as herpes.

CORRECTION: Beta Release

[scorp1us]

The upcoming release will be Qt 4.7 + QtMobility 1.0.0 + QtCreator 2.0

QtMobility is the API for accessing all the bits found on phones but sometimes on desktops. QtMobility has been released, just the other day. You can get it and run it against Qt 4.6
-Messaging (mail/SMS)
-Sensors
-Multimedia
-Services
-Bearer Management (Network management when connected via Cell & WIFI)

Qt 4.7 just went Beta status and should be expected soon.
This release bring in QML, which has been called "Declarative UI". This is the sexy Flash competitor with CSS-style interfaces, animations, and JavaScripting. That's all it adds.

Qt Creator 2.0 I believe is in Beta and will be released with Qt 4.7 as well.
This is the (optional) IDE. But its really good in its own right for Qt development. It features ability to cross-compile and remote debug. You can compile and have it load the app onto your phone and debug that way. It also has QML viewer and WYSIWYG GUI development (Integrated QtDesigner)