Forum Nokia Goes Budapest: Practical Insights for Developers

For the second year running, Hungary’s elegant Budapest provided the backdrop for Forum Nokia Developer Day. Running under the theme of ‘Driving Mobile Innovation’, the day was packed with practical advice on and insights into the business of mobile application development.

‘Budapest is a great venue that attracts people from across the world. We have some 150 delegate registrations from about 60 companies and 20 universities.’ said Forum Nokia’s Harri Pennanen, head of developer community engagement, at the 19 November event. Pennanen said Developer Day delegates represented 25 countries, from across Europe, as well as Brazil, India, Singapore, and the U.S.

Expert speakers came from Forum Nokia, developer companies, and universities, as well as local operator Pannon. Tamás Szabó, Pannon’s head of new business and pricing, outlined the Hungarian market and its opportunities.

Spotlight on JoikuSpot

A highly polished presentation came from Tom Ojala, chairman and founder of Joikusoft, who told a tale of how the award-winning JoikuSpot application was brought to market. Launched in mid-2008, JoikuSpot is the first application that turns a smartphone into a WLAN hotspot, allowing users to share their mobile broadband connection with laptops and other devices and eliminating the need for a separate 3G dongle.

Describing how his company took the application from concept to capitalization, Ojala pointed to four key business areas: ‘I would say that more than 50 per cent of your resources and effort should go into business aspects and marketing when developing a new application.’

First, adequate funding is needed to sustain the development of the new business.

Second is a commitment to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). ‘It’s essential to preserve the uniqueness of your idea with international patents. Don’t neglect this, it has to be done early - if you start when the product is developed, it is too late’, says Ojala.

About branding and channels

Branding is the third aspect. ‘This is probably the hardest thing to do in marketing. You must start from day one to build a strong brand with an emotional tie that resonates with people. When people say that they are in love with your brand, it’s very powerful,’ said Ojala. ‘References are extremely important. Also, enter as many competitions as possible.’

Fourthly, Ojala highlighted the need to build an effective channel to market. He described how his company built its own distribution channel ahead of JoikuSpot’s launch by offering mobile software titles that people could download for free. The viral marketing buzz this created helped to establish the channel before the product was even announced. ‘As well as building your own channel, get as many external channels as possible ready for day one of your launch’, Ojala said.

Ojala also advised developers to make use of the mobile community to help test the product by releasing beta versions. ‘Don’t wait until you have developed a perfect product. Early adopters are willing to help you develop the product for free. We found out about devices we had not heard of before and also identified what the market really wants from the product. We also managed to get the application translated into 13 languages for free.’

Finally, Ojala described how JoikuSpot is achieving a high conversion rate from the Lite version to the Premium version.  ‘It is double that achieved by time-limited trials that force the user into a decision’, he said.

Market matters

Ojala’s insights were mirrored by Spartak Kabakchiev, Managing Director of Bulgarian developer WebGate. He also pointed out the importance of defining who potential customers are and precisely what need a product will meet.

Identifying the target market and the devices in use in that market, was also the topic of a presentation about research into presence by Dr. Reuben Edwards of the UK’s Lancaster University. Researchers used Bluetooth to gather data about users at the Roskilde music festival in Denmark and at Lancaster University.

Effective research tool with commercial uses

Bluetooth presence is an effective research tool that could have commercial applications. Edwards gave an example:  ‘When we ran a social event at the university bar one Friday evening, we used Bluetooth to track customers. We achieved a 50 per cent increase in takings, but the extra profit only just covered the cost of the promotion. However, we found that 47 per cent of new customers at the promotion returned to the bar over the next three weeks, so the event had a longer term benefit.’

Clearly, there are possibilities for clubs and sports venues to use Bluetooth to track spectator numbers and build customer loyalty.

Learn more about Developer Day by viewing presentations »

Code Camps and more

The following day in Budapest featured Forum Nokia Code Camps on S60 5th Edition touch UI and Web Runtime (WRT) widgets.

Learn about the touch UI »
Learn about WRT widgets »

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