Between Brackets

While Apple tries to make its Developers more happy with their reviewing processes by providing the current approval status, there are people that see (expect?) the move by app developers from Apple towards Android to really start now.

Meanwhile, Nokia has introduced its new N900 with yet another mobile OS called Maemo, and now Samsung joins the crowd with again another mobile OS called Bada.

Although this clearly shows manufacturers think there is a lot of business to be done in the app space, developers increasingly find themselves in a situation that is even worse than that of developing mobile web applications: please create separate app for every popular device.

There’s a lot going on in the app space at the moment.

According to a poll among 147 executives in the mobile industry, N-Gage is a dodo and jME is on its way out (even if this is an April’s fool joke, it is clear that N-Gage and jME are in trouble and are loosing ground fast to new contenders).

The new stars at the gaming firmament are -tatataah-: iPhone and Android.

It is clear that Nokia has to address the -lack of an- App Store phenomenon asap. They must make it super easy to buy and install games. Furthermore, they need to make sure consumers can re-install and play their games on any of their Nokia devices (now a game is bound to a specific device and when you buy a new phone, you need to buy and install all your games all over again)

I have been playing around with the LG Renoir (KC 910) recently, a phone that is rather complete containing features like 8M camera, HSDPA, 8Mb memory, and GPS. As this is a phone with a touch screen, it has a ‘tried-to-clone-iPhone’ feel (with a lot of room for improvement).

What is interesting is that the OS is proprietary LG stuff. The amount of customizing you can do with this phone is definitely limited compared to iPhone, Android or Symbian, and these limitations can as serious as not being able to put your favorite (downloaded) app in the main screen. The phone supports Java apps, to be downloaded and installed OTA, but you have limited possibilities to move those applications outside the dreaded ‘Games and applications’ menu, 3 levels down.

Another interesting point is that I did not find an App store for this phone (although rumors about the arrival of an App store can be found) which limits the phone in becoming a platform for developers, and thus lacks an easy way for consumers to add (buy) extra functionality to the phones. Since being able to extend your phone through an App Store will become the norm in the near future, LG has 2 options: it should either move to an open platform (Android, Symbian) or also offer an LG App store market itself.