Nokia "Suspends" Its Free Developer Program

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Nokia "Suspends" Its Free Developer Program

Posted by Unknown on Monday November 5, 2012 @01:50PM from the only-the-best-fart-app-developers-need-apply dept.

jbernardo writes "Nokia has put in deep freeze its free developer program, the launchpad. Now, in the Developer Programs page, one can only see a pitch for a paid 'Nokia Premium Developer Program,' and below, in the Nokia Developer Pro and Developer Launchpad box, there is a text merely stating that Nokia are not currently accepting new applications for Nokia Developer Launchpad and Nokia Developer Pro programs. With most (if not all) Launchpad memberships already expired, seems like Nokia no longer is interested in the developer community, which once was one of the mainstays of its domination of the smartphone market. Of course, that domination was destroyed by Elop and its 'burning platforms' memo, together with the failed bet on Windows Phone 7, so maybe giving up on developers would also be expectable."

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damn that would affect all.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-05 13:53 · Score: 5, Funny

the 7 devs
1. Re:damn that would affect all.. by Jeremi · 2012-11-05 14:39 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  the 7 devs
  ... and Snow White as well. (Sleeping Beauty could not be reached for comment, but it's rumored that she has transitioned to an Apple platform)
  
  --
  
  I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
2. Re:damn that would affect all.. by ifiwereasculptor · 2012-11-05 15:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  (Sleeping Beauty could not be reached for comment, but it's rumored that she has transitioned to an Apple platform)
  I'm pretty sure she's running Linux, hence being unable to resume from sleep.
3. Re:damn that would affect all.. by Compaqt · 2012-11-05 15:53 · Score: 2
  
  That's not what he was talking about. The reason it's funny is because it touches on something true: the fact that Linux doesn't wake up from suspend on some of the multitudinous hardware out there. I myself had this problem on brandname (HP) desktop, until I went and customized suspend with blacklist.conf.
  
  --
  I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
4. Re:damn that would affect all.. by gwking · 2012-11-05 16:00 · Score: 2
  
  My Windows 7 wakes up from sleep and shits all over the network stack. I had to turn off sleep because of it.
5. Re:damn that would affect all.. by drinkypoo · 2012-11-05 22:43 · Score: 2
  
  I updated my Vista notebook to 7 and had to go back because the only video driver available for the crappy ATI IGP would only let me resume from suspend once.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
6. Re:damn that would affect all.. by JackieBrown · 2012-11-06 01:24 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Remember that when windows encounters a problem like this, it is the driver/hardware's fault.
  When this happens to linux, it is because linux is not ready for prime time.
  At least, this is how it usually is spun.
7. Re:damn that would affect all.. by kurkosdr · 2012-11-06 02:38 · Score: 2
  
  "Remember that when windows encounters a problem like this, it is the driver/hardware's fault" Yes, because Microsoft was smart enough to have the hardware vendors code the drivers, so what happens is (mostly) their fault. Linux kernel devs were dumb enough to put the drivers in the kernel, and hence under their responsibility (the ABI gets broken too often for proprietary drivers to be a realistic choice). Sure, theoretically the vendor could put their drivers in the kernel tree and still maintain them, but it doesn't work that way.The way companies think is "there, we openned our drivers, it's your responsibility now". And to make matters worse, GregHK even gave wild promises about drivers getting better if they are in the kernel tree in some blog post, as if most kernel devs will fix your driver instead of doing more important things. So, the Linux kernel team has put itself in blame for all driver issues, just to advance FSF's politics that say all drivers should be in the kernel tree and GPLed. Oh, and Microsoft has produced a "reference device" (Surface and Surface Pro). If it works on the Surface Pro, the problem is on your side. OS X has Macs. Android has the Nexuses. Desktop Linux has yet to produce a reference device, or even an HCL that doesn't get broken with it's release, because it's supposed to run everywhere perfectly (talks about overambitious goals)
8. Re:damn that would affect all.. by ultranova · 2012-11-06 03:03 · Score: 2
  
  To be fair, in Linux drivers are part of the kernel while in Windows they're separate, so in Linux driver problems are kernel (Linux) problems.
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Expectable? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-05 13:56 · Score: 2, Funny

Seriouslyable?
Qt/Trolletch by Qwerpafw · 2012-11-05 14:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

I guess I'm glad they spun off Qt before going back and regressing past the paid-commercial-development trolltech days for Qt.
Admittedly Trolltech used to offer free GPL noncommercial Qt licenses, but that sort of licensing isn't even possible with Windows Phone. Still painful to see open source transition into the most closed model of all.
Re:to be expected by sideslash · 2012-11-05 14:08 · Score: 4, Informative

What are you talking about? Here's its entry in a dictionary from the year 1806. Please don't give the rest of us spelling/grammar Nazis a bad name.
WP not dead yet by slomike1 · 2012-11-05 14:08 · Score: 3, Insightful

The Nokia Lumia 920 is a very interesting phone. Many developers just got one last week at the Build event (2000+ attendees). The Lumia 900 sold pretty well also. I think it is a little early to declare that Nokia and Window's Phone are dead.
1. Re:WP not dead yet by ColdWetDog · 2012-11-05 15:33 · Score: 2
  
  The Nokia Lumia 920 is a very interesting phone. Many developers just got one last week at the Build event (2000+ attendees). The Lumia 900 sold pretty well also. I think it is a little early to declare that Nokia and Window's Phone are dead.
  What? 20 minutes? An hour?
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
2. Re:WP not dead yet by rtfa-troll · 2012-11-05 19:22 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Thats just silly. Android is neither a cell phone nor a company... it is just a VM running on linux therefore it has zero market share.
  Let's put this really simply. If you have an app and you want people to run it, you have a choice of binary formats to put it in. If you put it out in Android's binary format, it will run on "75%" of the new phones sold this year (I'd guess 65% actually). If you put it out in iOS format it will run on, say, 20%. If you put it out in RIM's format it's likely to run on about 5%. If you put it out on Bada it will run on about 3% of phones. If you put it out in Windows Phone's format and we assume even a generous 50% growth caused by Windows phone 8, which would exceed every recent new version of Windows for Mobile phones, then it will run on about 3% of phones.
  From the point of view of an App developer what you have to know is that, if you already have the facilities in place to support a Bada port of your app in parallel with you iOS, Android, and RIM ports, and if you really get serious ROI from the Bada version, then you should maybe consider producing a Windows Phone port. Otherwise forget it, come back in 2015 and have a look at the market again.
  Producing ports for different operating systems isn't, as we have always been told for Linux, free. You are more likely to get widespread attention and grass roots marketing for your Windows version of you app if the iOS app is successful than if the Windows version is successful. Now is the chance to take advantage of your competitors who are distracted by Microsoft's Windows marketing and try to overtake them by concentrating all your efforts on the successful platforms.
  
  --
  =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Nokia never dominated the developer space by CockMonster · 2012-11-05 14:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

They struggled greatly with it in fact. It was one of the reasons they dropped Sybmian, the 'ecosystem' never took off. Symbian C++ and frameworks were complicated, and the signing program was a disaster. Maemo had a couple of apps sure but nothing like what Apple have. Elop considered the 'ecosystem' to be the most important thing for the survival of the company.
1. Re:Nokia never dominated the developer space by 21mhz · 2012-11-05 14:36 · Score: 2
  
  Hey, here at Slashdot we are not spoiling a good Nokia bashing submission with boring facts.
  And I see you've been put to your place already by somebody anonymous with a hell of a life.
  
  --
  My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
2. Re:Nokia never dominated the developer space by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-05 16:33 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Hey, here at Slashdot we are not spoiling a good Nokia bashing submission with boring facts.
  Riiight.... Would be terrible to have that. We should never bring up that the Symbian Market Place alone had 80k apps. We would certainly never mention that there were plenty of other places to get apps (e.g. the best SSH apps never made it to the market place at all). We should never mention that most of the "Apps" were actually applications as opposed to 90% being frontends for someone's blog or pictures of food and multi-lingual fart apps. No, it would never do to suggest that a system like that had a more solid eco-system than Windows has on the mobile even though Windows has been there longer than Symbian.
  
  And I see you've been put to your place already by somebody anonymous with a hell of a life.
  Ahh yes; a person who posts for Nokia on Slashdot. A person who has sat there in the middle as his own country's main employer is destroyed to save it's American shareholder's investment in Microsoft. A person who has seen the company he works for ripped off; selling it's soul and still ending up displaced by a cheap Chinese clone maker. A person basically working to fuck his own countrymen by taking as much of their lifeblood as possible away from them and sending it to Redmond. That person is trying to intimidate anonymous posters on Slashdot by threatening to accuse them of having a "hell of a life". You think we will go off and commit suicide or something? Do you have a sense of irony?
Bet has not failed yet by SuperKendall · 2012-11-05 14:22 · Score: 4, Informative

The bet on WP8 is far from having failed. It suffered a major setback my Microsoft not allowing SP7 phones to upgrade to 8, but that was not a fatal blow...
Over the next year Microsoft is going to push Windows 8 in all its incarnations. They are already making a strong push for developers to write apps, having a good stable of apps already and giving away a Nokia phone and Surface tablet to every Microsoft developer at the Build conference.
To count Microsoft out is foolish, they have a lot of money and a lot of strategic connections in the phone world - and on top of that WP8 is actually a pretty well designed system that will attract developers of its own accord just by being pleasant to build for.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Re:Bet has not failed yet by tuppe666 · 2012-11-05 14:39 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The bet on WP8 is far from having failed...To count Microsoft out is foolish, they have a lot of money and a lot of strategic connections in the phone world
  It is true WP8 has not failed, but then as yet it unproven technology, going against Android which has captured 75% of the market and Apple 14.9%. In fact all I am seeing is the same arguments from the same fans...and yes I do mean you, that I heard with WP7...and 7.5, and where are they now 2%. The sad part is the main reason for its failure is Microsoft not only doesn't have connections in the Phone world, it upset most of Nokia's.
  Its true Microsoft has lots of money, but lets face it so do Google and Apple and they also have market share, an established product, and a devoted following.
2. Re:Bet has not failed yet by tuppe666 · 2012-11-05 15:51 · Score: 2
  
  The mobile space changes rapidly
  No they don't. New markets replace old markets, and in this instance Smartphones replace Dumbphones. In reality iOS and Android are mature popular products pretending otherwise is understating the task Microsoft has.
Re:Windows Phone is no Slouch... by viperidaenz · 2012-11-05 14:23 · Score: 5, Funny

Thanks for listing the features of my now 2 year old Motorola Defy + CM7.
Where are your thumbs? by tepples · 2012-11-05 14:37 · Score: 2

Built in X-Box Live and Zune. Having a system built into a phone for online gaming etc that has been tested and proven for years is great.
In games for Windows Phone 7, how do you feel where your thumbs are relative to the on-screen directional pad and trigger buttons at the sides of the screen so that you can press them while looking at the action in the middle of the screen? Android solves this with devices that use physical buttons (the Xperia Play and the forthcoming Archos GamePad) and a Wii Remote driver application.
Xbox 8 by tepples · 2012-11-05 14:40 · Score: 2

Over the next year Microsoft is going to push Windows 8 in all its incarnations.
All? Will there be an Xbox 8, or will that have to wait for Windows 9?
Re:Makes sense. by tuppe666 · 2012-11-05 14:42 · Score: 4, Informative

Nokia no longer sell phones with their own OS. Why do they need to continue supporting developer programs for software they no longer support?
...because they need options, because right now, windows is the burning platform. Unfortunately the goal seems to be to continue throwing good money after bad.
Let's get real here by antifoidulus · 2012-11-05 15:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

FTS:
which once was one of the mainstays of its domination of the smartphone market.

No, just no. It's domination of the smartphone market was due to the fact that it made pretty good hardware and OK software at a time when nobody else could even manage one of the 2. However as others stepped up in both categories, Nokia was slow to react and that is what put it in it's current position.

--
Monstar L
Re:Makes sense. by multi+io · 2012-11-05 15:55 · Score: 4, Insightful

For now, Nokia is downsizing and cost cutting big time. Their credit has been rated to junk and the company is in the red. They're trying to minimize all costs while the transition to WP is underway
Yeah, just like SGI minimized all costs while transitioning to Windows NT. Selling your soul to MS has worked amazingly well for companies in the past.
I'm with you. by YesIAmAScript · 2012-11-05 16:30 · Score: 3, Interesting

Nokia had developers because they had the dominant platform. Websites looked like garbage at the time one phones, so companies wanted to program for Symbian. With Symbian they could easily make apps which were slightly to somewhat better than garbage. So they did.
Once any other company came in and made better hardware (RIM first) and a better OS/UI toolkit (Apple), it was over for Symbian and Nokia was put in a tough spot.

--
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Nokia 920 phones distributed at MS Build 2012 by DaveTheDelirious · 2012-11-05 16:32 · Score: 2

Strange. I was just at the 2012 Build conference in Redmond (hey, it's a job) and Microsoft gave each attendee both a Windows 8 ARM tablet and a Nokia 920 developer phone to help get folks interested in developing for the platforms. You want apps? Carpet bomb the developers.... There were a number of sessions devoted to Windows Phone 8 development, and reading between the lines implied that the WP8 SDK is almost there, but not quite. Cross-platform development (desktop - tablet - phone) is not friction-free. To Microsoft's credit they were up front about it. My take? The center of gravity for Nokia application development has moved to Redmond. I predict that lots of phone marketing cash will flow from Redmond as well. Is resistance (from Nokia) futile?
1. Re:Nokia 920 phones distributed at MS Build 2012 by quetwo · 2012-11-06 02:53 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  So, the phone got released last week, and they are only "close" to having the SDK available?
  So, that means for the first 6 months we will only have simple demo apps, and quick "fart" apps until everybody gets up to speed, and the big dev houses get their act together. I honestly don't see the platform inertia lasting that long. People who have phone who can't get the Pandora, and other tangential apps they are used to will drop it for the ones who do. By the time the big apps come, there won't be any users left.
Re:to be expected by Kal+Zekdor · 2012-11-05 19:52 · Score: 3, Informative

What are you talking about? Here's its entry in a dictionary from the year 1806. Please don't give the rest of us spelling/grammar Nazis a bad name.
Excuse me, but the proper term is "Logomachist".
No developers by nurb432 · 2012-11-06 00:04 · Score: 2

No community, no applicators, so no product interest.
Even Microsoft understand this now, to an extent, tho 'full' VS is still far to expensive if you ask me. You should be giving tools away for nothing, to lock people into your products.

--
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Re:to be expected by sideslash · 2012-11-06 04:35 · Score: 2

Excuse me, but the proper term is "Logomachist".
Thank you; that is very helpful. Please note, however, that you should not have capitalized "logomachist" in your reply.