Mobile Application Development at Forum Nokia.
Mobile application development is the heart and soul of the smartphone and mobile computing market. Without mobile application software, billions of mobile phone users around the world could make phone calls-not surfing the mobile Internet, playing mobile games or sending and receiving emails.

While the iTunes and BlackBerry App stores have received the most press attention of late, Nokia of Finland, through its Forum Nokia operation, has assisted mobile developers for many years.
Despite Nokia’s loss of market share in the handset market, the company believes offering innovative applications by working with developers is the road to profitability. Assisting developers with technical support (see the Forum Nokia Developer Community online) and the marketing of their applications through the Nokia OVI store are critical.
Bloomberg in a recent article wrote that Nokia’s failure to beat Apple’s iPhone and software puts its market share at risk, while a number of mobile app developers have migrated from Nokia’s Symbian OS platform to the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms.

Palm Pre2

The Palm Pre continues to attract attention from analysts who speculate how many devices Palm has sold, as well as what the launch of webOS means for Palm’s future as an independent company.

Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Synder made a splash when he wrote in a recent research note that his contacts in the manufacturing and retail channel indicate that Palm has sold 300,000 Pre units since Sprint Nextel launched the smartphone June 6. The number is higher than many other estimates. Sprint may provide more detailed sales figures when it discusses its second quarter earnings this month.

Further, Synder said Palm will ship 1 million units to Sprint in its first quarter of production. He also said that he expects Verizon Wireless to launch a webOS device in early 2010, with AT&T Mobility following shortly thereafter.

Speculation about Palm as a possible takeover target also continues. Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said in a recent note that there is “great value in Palm as a strategic acquisition.” He listed Cisco, Dell, HP, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung as possible suitors for the smartphone maker.

And in one more tidbit of Pre news, the website T3 is reporting that early next week Palm will make an announcement about the Pre’s UK launch. Vodafone and O2 have been eyed as possible carriers for the Pre’s Euro debut.

Introduction

A week ago I was asked to give a presentation to a local meet-up mobile group called Mobile Portland about my 12 years in mobile and how that relates to the iPhone App Store. I decided to focus this on some conclusions I came to regarding building an iPhone business instead of being specific to Infinity Softworks.

I then gave the same presentation earlier this week at OTBC, a local tech incubator that I’ve been involved with the past few years, for a Lunch-and-Learn. In total over 100 saw my presentation in person or streamed across the web.

I’ve included both the slides and video here for your review. I think I’m taking a very realistic look at the challenges. Most of the popular press and blogs have been so overwhelmingly positive about the App Store and its impact for developers. But the make-up of the App Store is far more complicated than that for the vast majority of us, and the opportunities have morphed substantially over the last nine months.

I hope this helps you with your business decisions, giving you a little more insight into the opportunities and challenges with Apple’s App Store itself. My goal was to analyze this from a business perspective. Obviously my own experiences influence the slides but feel that the presentation is broader than any one company’s experience.

Video

This video was shot with the second presentation at OTBC. The first half, 27 minutes, is my presentation. The second half is Q&A.

Slides

If you’d prefer to peruse the slides instead, please keep in mind that the video tells a much fuller story than the slides do:

Visit Elia Freedman’s blog