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The WDN Symbian DevZone... Interview with Lee Wright, Director, Global Developer Marketing
at Nokia
by Richard Bloor, October 21, 2002
You may have noticed that WirelessDevNet is now able to provide Nokia technical
documentation. This has been achieved under the Nokia Content Syndication
Program part of Nokia’s broad-based approach to ensuring developers have easy
access to information about the technologies Nokia supports. This week Richard
talks to Lee Wright, Director, Global Developer Marketing, to find out how the
program fits with Nokia’s overall strategy
Forum Nokia is perhaps one of the most comprehensive wireless developer
resources on the web. However the Web front end is only the tip of Nokia's
activities to foster third party software development around their chosen
technologies. I spoke recently to Lee Wright, Director, Global Developer
Marketing about his role and the ways in which Nokia is working to provide
wireless developers with support and access to worldwide markets.
WDN: Lee I’m curious, how come an American is heading up the global developer
services of a company which traditionally has been based out of Finland?
Lee: I came to Nokia originally to head up the Americas developer outreach effort,
before that I had founded and ran an independent organization that provided
support for wireless developers globally.
Last Fall Nokia launched the Mobile Software Unit, which develops our phone
operating systems and user interfaces. It is this group that has licensed Series
60, to Nokia Mobile phones, Siemens, Samsung and Matsushita. At the same
time we re-aligned our developer support to provide a single global initiative. We
also committed additional resources to the program and we are still ramping up
this initiative. Nokia globally is now spending more money with more resources
working with developers than ever before.
Last October I was asked to head this new global developer marketing
organization, so today, while I am based in the US my responsibilities are global
and I have a team of folks who work for me based both in the US and Europe.
We are responsible for the Forum.nokia.com web site, the Nokia Content
Syndication Program, the Nokia Knowledge Network, the global developer
database, our CRM system which keeps us in touch with developers round the
world, media relations, outreach events and so forth. So yes I am located in the
US but our perspective and responsibilities are global.
We deliver the services globally through our Developer Labs or what we call Hubs
with business development staff located around the world. So if you are an
application developer it should not matter whether you are in Palo Alto, Beijing or
Barcelona, you should be able to find all the information you need and get all the
support we can provide regardless of where you are.
WDN: What would you say was the key goal that Nokia’s developer program is
trying to achieve?
Lee: Truly one of the most important things that we do is to connect developers
to global opportunities. If you are a US developer looking to deploy a MMS
application on Nokia’s Series 60 platform you don’t need to wait until the 3650
comes to market in the US early next year. You can build that application today
and deploy it on the Nokia 7650, our first camera phone, and we can help with
marketing in Asia and Europe through our consumer, operator or business to
business channels. When the Nokia 3650 comes to the US the same channels
can be used to deliver that application here.
Take our Tradepoint initiative. It’s a Business to Business service with over 1000
applications of all types, its used by more than 80 buying organizations including
some of the worlds largest operators, various regional and country specific
carriers, as well as wireless ISPs. So developers who make their applications
available through Tradepoint have access to these buyers. They also can access
opportunities within Nokia to reach consumers through on device or in the box
offerings. Nokia Networks or Mobile Phones also use this resource to find
applications to introduce to operators or assist with device launches.
WDN: Series 60 and other Nokia technologies mark a change towards an IP
company and as a result Nokia technologies will start to appear in other
manufacturers hardware. Will this change the focus of your activities?
Lee: One of the key realizations we had in implementing the new organization
was that our goal is not necessarily to own the developer or build our own
proprietary or exclusive developer community. Rather the real goal is to reach
broadly into the developer community and foster support for Nokia devices and
technologies that Nokia supports. In doing so we realized that it was important to
reach out to developers whether they were using Forum Nokia or first rate
independent developer sites like WirelessDevNet. It was this that lead us to start
the Nokia Content Syndication Program (NCSP) with the goal of providing Nokia
tools and technical documentation to key partners throughout the web.
So we see web sites run by licensees of Nokia technologies as complimentary. As
other Series 60 licensees launch their developer initiatives we are eager to make
sure that they have the appropriate technical documents and tools. From our
standpoint, the more people who can access this information the better.
WDN: How do you feel the program is going? Have you identified areas where
your approach can be improved? Are you planning new ventures for the future?
Lee: By every measure there are more people working with Nokia than ever
before, more developers, more operators, more tools companies and as a result
more interest out in the market place and that shows a practical success.
Our current activities are already broadly based. For example, we recently held
the Nokia Global Games Summit in London. This event brought together more
than 40 leading game developers from around the world with dozens of buying
organizations to talk face to face. This was probably the single best
developer/operator event we have undertaken - so far. It may also be the most
important event in the mobile gaming space given the concentration of the world’s
leading developers and leading operators at the event.
We do closely monitor how we deliver our services and are always looking for
ways to improve but all the indications are that the program is working well. In
the future we will be building on that success, there may be some tweaks, but I
don't believe there is one single aspect of what we do that we can single out. We
will continue to use the major developer events around the world as a way to
meet developers who are interested in learning more about wireless and mobile
applications.
Another example, at CTIA Wireless IT we ran a session to help developers learn
about Series 60 that was literally standing room only. This is part of our public
workshop program, but we also have invitation-only workshops that give
developers early access to pre announcement prototypes and those workshops
are very much sought after.
WDN: For developers who are new to wireless and Nokia’s supported technologies
what do you think is the biggest challenge they face and how do you go about
easing the hurdle?
Lee: There are two main areas: What am I going to build and how am I going to
make money. In other words: Technology selection, platform choice and business
model. This is where initiatives like the Series 60 platform, which crosses
manufacturers and provides support for multiple, industry standard
technologies, and Tradepoint, which really opens up the global marketplace to
developers of any size, come in to play.
In terms of making a decision on the platform, the goal for most developers is to
reach as many people as possible who are likely to buy their applications, while
minimizing the amount of additional customization work they have to do in order
to reach those consumers.
The Series 60 platform today reaches more leading handset manufactures and
more operators in more countries - and ultimately more Smartphone consumers -
than any other. Given the support by leading tools companies and the
technologies enabled, including J2ME, Symbian, and MMS, developers can build
powerful, compelling applications with the tools that they are already familiar
with.
Then the developer faces the question of taking that application to market, and
here’s where they can leverage Nokia’s global reach through Tradepoint.
Tradepoint is made of many elements, including a business model tied to
performance, an online business-to-business marketplace, a global network of
business development people that are focused totally on generating business for
developers. It also encompasses the key events in the industry, such as the
Nokia Global Games Summit, which bring together the leading developers of all
sizes with the leading operators around the world.
It’s really how all of these elements of Tradepoint work together that can either
supplement the existing efforts of a current wireless developer and give them
cost-effectively global reach immediately, or serve as the primary channel for a
new developer.
Either way, the online market combined with dedicated business development
teams in the US, Europe, Japan, Singapore, and China really links developers
with decision makers when they’re ready to buy.
WDN: It seems to me that one of the major differences for a developer of wireless
applications is that the Operators will be as interested in marketing developers
products as the developers themselves.
Lee: That’s right. If we are to succeed as an industry we need to ensure that we
communicate with existing and potential end consumers and do so in a way that
makes it easy for consumers to learn about new applications and to download
those applications.
I believe Nokia is an excellent partner for developers, to enable them to get their
application in front of consumers and businesses. Our global reach, the size of
the install base and the breadth and depth of our tools partnerships, our
technical information and support are all unparalleled.
WDN: Finally Lee for a developer who has not yet been involved with Nokia,
where should they start?
Lee: Firstly they should come to the site (http://www.forum.nokia.com) and sign
up for our regional newsletters. These will alert them to new tools and devices, as
well as business opportunities. They can also learn more about the business
opportunities at http://www.forum.nokia.com/business.
Then I’d recommend taking a close look at the Series 60 platform:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/series60.
I’d also invite them to come and see us. In early November, we’ll be holding the
Nokia Mobile Internet Conference for Europe in Munich and for Asia in Beijing.
While later in November we’ll be at Comdex, so we hope they stop by and meet
our technical support teams, tools partners, and business development teams.
About the WDN Symbian Editor, Richard Bloor:
Richard Bloor has 16 years experience in the IT industry. His earlier
work was largely in design and development of commercial and
manufacturing systems but more recently has focused on
development and test management of government systems.
Richard Bloor is the Mobile Applications champion at System
Architecture consultancy Equinox of Wellington, New Zealand.
Richard can be reached at rbloor@wirelessdevnet.com.
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