Nokia lifts App developers with smart phones

Nokia West Africa, at the weekend rewarded some five application developers in Nigeria.

They include Ajibola Aiyedogbon, Seyi Eluwole, Oyewole Oyediran, Adesoye Gbolahan and Oluwarotimi Akintewe.

Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony in Lagos, the head, Nokia’s Ecosystem Developer Experience (EDX), Mr. Teemu Kiijarvi, said the move was one of the ways Nokia of demonstrating its commitment to support local developers in building innovative applications on its proprietary platform – the Nokia store.

He said, Nokia’s decision to support developers was based on the need to have a rich ecosystem of exciting locally-built applications to suit the needs of Nigerians, adding that two months ago, Nokia organized a free three-day training for over 200 Nigerian developers before the emergence of the selected winners.

Mr. Kiijarvi also denied speculations that Nokia was on the verge of facing out phones built on the Symbian platform, stressing that the mobile phone manufacturer has actually developed new Symbian updates, which have greatly improved the user-interface of most Nokia phones.

He explained that Nokia’s new monetization opportunities for developers, mostly in the region is tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia’s nearest competitor. Nokia Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia’s beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.

Commenting on behalf of his colleagues, Mr. Ajibola Aiyedogbon whose application (My Cash) on expense tracking is already enjoying downloads on Nokia store commended Nokia for providing him with its platform to reach people with his application.

Also, he expressed delight that these downloads would ultimately be financially rewarding, calling on other developers to embrace the Nokia platform.

Remmy Nweke

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