Nokia Publisher Successes

While learning the ropes of parenthood, Anthony Ramirez and his wife figured there had to be an easier way to keep track of their baby’s important activities. In an attempt to monitor and organize all of their little one’s interactions, they developed their first Windows Phone app under Coquisoft LLC.

Though there are various parenting apps on the market, ParentAssist is differentiated by its fully customizable settings. Parents can track feedings, diaper changes, sleeping patterns, reactions to different solid foods and all things baby. It allows them to keep tabs on multiple children at once, keep a daily journal and produce activity summaries and detail reports.

ParentAssist was built by a small team with very limited resources and experience with mobile apps, but they found that developing on the Windows Phone platform was intuitive. “I very much enjoy developing on the Windows Phone platform. The emulator is superfast and deploying to a device is just as easy. The API is easy to use and in general it’s a lot of fun,” said Anthony Ramirez, Owner, Coquisoft LLC.

Over the course of one year, the two-person (part-time) team spent time learning new technologies, architecting the system, designing the UX/Icons, coding, testing and preparing for deployment. Their goal was to provide users with the information they need in as few clicks as possible. Anthony’s wife, Donatella, who is not a developer by trade, took on the UX aspect as she has a natural eye for design. To create the icons and panorama image, she used Expression Design, which she found easy to learn. Anthony worked on the back-end, using the following:

•    Windows Azure for the ability to scale as needed
•    SQL Azure for robust, cloud data storage
•    Windows Access Control Service to allow users to authenticate using social media and e-mail platforms
•    Telerik Windows Phone controls to provide a professional look and feel
•    Nokia’s networking, notification and isolated storage systems

The app is available in English in nearly all countries that Windows Marketplace serves for $3.99 with an offer for a free 7-day, full feature trial. ParentAssist users are a hyper-engaged group of consumers, typically logging into the app seven to eight times per day to log activities. Customer reviews are extremely positive to-date:

The ParentAssist team is extremely optimistic about the app’s possibilities and intends to develop more Windows Phone apps, particularly for Nokia phones. “Nokia to us means cutting edge design and high quality. Associating our app and brand with Nokia is fantastic. I also love that Metro is a completely different design language/UX and allows you to provide a solution that looks and feel fresh compared to what is currently available,” said Ramirez.

To learn more about Coquisoft LLC’s ParentAssist app, checkout the video below:  

 

Nokia’s Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 phones have garnered a tremendous amount of buzz since their launch. Recognizing the opportunity to create addictive, interactive apps on the Windows Phone platform, FourBros Studio, with the help of Nokia, has turned their indie game into a lucrative business. [Read their blog here.]

In 2011, FourBros Studio created Taptitude. The free Windows Phone application is a collection of more than sixty games in which players test their skills to ultimately collect coveted star awards. With new games added every week, there’s an endless opportunity for capturing the attention of new consumers.  The app also features online leaderboards, weekly redeem riddles for the chance to win prizes and an integrated cross-game reward system where players earn coins in one game to buy upgrades in another.

The developers leveraged Windows Phone OS features such as Multitouch and Accelerometer input, social sharing and pinned tiles so that each game is pinned to the start screen of the app for easy access.

Taptitude uses an in-app advertising model, meaning FourBros collects revenue based on the number of daily impressions via the app. In just over a year, they’re nearing 100 million ad impressions – with the majority of momentum in the last few months.    

“We chose Windows Phone because we saw it as a platform that is poised for rapid growth,” said Brandon Furtwangler of FourBros. “We’re extremely excited to see Nokia embracing Windows Phone, and we’re already starting to see the impact of the Nokia/Microsoft partnership paying off.”

Submitting to Windows Phone Marketplace has also been a smooth process for FourBros. With the platform’s quick turn-around time for approval, the developers have been able to maintain updates every week to dozens of countries around the world. The App Hub portal has also proven to be beneficial by giving them access to all the ratings from players around the world, thus providing valuable feedback for continued improvements to the app.

With the launch of Nokia Lumia smartphones in the U.S. market, developers like FourBros Studio have seen a dramatic jump in downloads, impressions and revenue. Currently, there are over 300,000 Taptitude players; and FourBros has already earned $34,000 just in the month of April. Furthermore, FourBros note that Nokia Lumia 710, Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 are emerging as leading traffic drivers among a great selection of other Windows Phones.

The developers believe their success is attributed to their ability to evolve according the rapidly changing gaming landscape. “At FourBros Studio, we’ve adopted an evolving game model where we continuously delight our users with weekly updates, said Furtwangler. “This allows us to react to changes in the market and take advantage of new circumstances as they unfold, such as the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900.”

In the last two months, FourBros saw more than 50,000 unique players using Nokia devices, which represents a third of all their players during that time frame. FourBros’s preliminary analysis shows that Nokia provides them with access to a global user base. FourBros Studio receives an average of one million ad impressions and earns revenue of over $1,000 daily. “The rate of growth is staggering, and it just goes to show that the Windows Phone Platform is on the rise.”

When working with Nokia, a publishing company does not have to be large in order to be successful. This week, we focus on the success of two people who never gave up on their passion for developing applications, and worked with Nokia to make their vision a reality.

Unique Designs for All: IND190 Success Story

In 2008, Ramadhan Bach wanted to download a new theme for his Symbian phone. Frustrated by the lack of options available at that time, he decided to create his own design, and he never looked back. After developing his first theme, Bach shared it with other Nokia enthusiasts with the same appetite for creative designs for Symbian phones. Bach published themes on his personal blog, where they gained momentum for years before he heeded the words of encouragement from his peers to start his own app development business. The result is IND190, a company that offers customers themes for a variety of Symbian Phones.

Since founding IND190 in 2011, Bach has experienced tremendous success. Only one year after first publishing free and paid versions of Bach’s themes in the Nokia Store, IND190 has garnered more than 26 million downloads across 190 countries. IND190 continues to release unique, high quality themes that enable Nokia users to personalize their Series 40, S60 and Symbian phones.

“Thanks to the Nokia Store and the hard work of my four team members, my personal hobby has now become a globally successful business,” said Ramadhan Bach, Engineer and Founder of IND190. “We look forward to exploring the Windows Phone platform with personalization applications and reaching a new group of Nokia users who are passionate about design and style.”

With their company and momentum growing by the day because of consistent release of new authentic content, IND190 and Bach are making big plans to expand into new markets to reach Windows Phone customers. They also hope to use Nokia’s tools to help increase monetization and gain more revenue in the years to come through in-app advertising.

One theme in particular is getting a lot of attention from both consumers and smartphone enthusiasts. Available globally for only 1 Euro in the Nokia Store, IND190’s Chrome is a series of themes developed that offer 100% scalable vector graphics compatible with S60 and Symbian Anna. Receiving five stars in the Nokia Store, the application has already impressed customers who have called the application “one of the best” among a variety of personal theme options because of its originality.

“Users like the ability to customize their phone, and our Chrome theme makes all the difference,” said Ramadhan Bach. “We are continuing to push the envelope in developing for our customers and look forward to publishing fresh and unique themes for the new Nokia Windows Phones in the near future.”

More information on Ramadhan Bach and IND190 can be found on their website and in the Nokia Store.

The Adventures of DreamGamez

Ramizuddin Shaikh knows how to write his own adventure. In 2010, he set out with a vision to create fun games and applications for the masses through his one-man company, DreamGamez. In an attempt to reach more people in more locations, Ramizuddin made the decision to develop for Nokia Series 40. The result was the Adventure of Ted, a gaming application that has been downloaded more than 20 million times in 190 countries. Handling everything from design to publishing, Ramizuddin leverages Nokia’s easy to use platforms and powerful developer community to develop fun and creative applications that appeal to a global audience. After its debut in 2012, Adventure of Ted was ranked as the number one top free game in the Nokia Store for more than a month in the US, UK and India.

As expected, Ramizuddin’s success was not without a few roadblocks.  As an independent developer, Ramizuddin knew he had to create an application that would stand out. He wanted to develop an application for feature phones that would find the perfect balance between quality and performance while also offering easy scrolling and high quality graphics. The result was a free application with smooth gameplay available on a variety of phones.

“It’s a challenge for an individual developer like me to reach a broad base of customers with a new application,” said Ramizuddin Shaikh, developer and founder of DreamGamez. “The Nokia Store’s global reach helped me showcase my high quality, unique application with gamers all over the world.”

With a successful Series 40 application under his belt, Ramizuddin is determined to embark on a new adventure: developing for Windows Phone. The rapid growth of the platform along with the intuitive developer tools has convinced Ramizuddin to publish all of his upcoming applications to the new platform.

“Nokia provides everything you need for development,” said Shaikh. “I look forward to exploring Windows Phone and seeing my download numbers continue to grow.”

Established in 1992, Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) is a premier tertiary institution that offers quality education in Information Technology, Engineering, Design, Interactive & Digital Media, Chemical & Life Sciences, Business Management and Health Sciences. More specifically, the Centre for IT Innovation (CITI) within the institution, partners with the industry to develop cutting-edge projects. As part of their coursework, Nanyang Polytechnic’s students from the Mobile Inno Sphere Centre are fully immersed in the research and development of mobile computing initiatives, including mobile application development. To date, Nanyang Polytechnic’s students have published 41 applications on the Nokia Store, reaching more than two million downloads across multiple platforms.

One of the recent -developed apps, ShakePicPro provides consumers with a quick and innovative   way to share images with friends just by shaking the phone. “We identified improvements that could be made to the current way smartphone owners share images today,” said Lecturer and lead designer Leow Zhen Zhen. “Conventional methods of image sharing between devices include using Bluetooth, email and MMS. These methods are often troublesome as they require devices to be paired or connected to an existing WiFi infrastructure.” The ShakePicPro application, on the other hand, is easy to use and compatible on Qt and Symbian phones.
  
ShakePicPro was chosen to be developed for Nokia because of the company’s substantial global consumer base, market potential and the helpful technical support they could call on during the application development process. Nokia offered developer support through various programs including Nokia Developer Launchpad, and Nokia Developer for Universities. Students were even able to access Nokia experts through technical discussion boards. After providing assistance in the early stages of app development, Nokia also helped the students achieve success in the Nokia Store with merchandising and marketing support to ensure their apps were exposed to a wider global audience.   NYP student Nicholas Chan noted, “I am thankful to Nanyang Polytechnic and Nokia for the precious opportunity and the great guidance and support provided to me in many ways. I am glad that I can experience the entire application development process, from design, development, publishing and eventually marketing my own applications. I am proud to be able to showcase my work in the Nokia Store and get real consumer feedback and downloads from the huge consumer base worldwide.”

ShakePicPro, is a free application that has already garnered more than one million downloads on Symbian and Nokia N9 phones. The team is now looking to expand onto the Windows Phone platform to increase its reach globally.

This past December, Nokia and NYP collaborated in a Windows Phone development program where 30 students participated in a 2 day Windows Phone CodeCamp workshop with the intention to develop and publish 15 Windows Phone applications by mid-2012. Currently, there are 12 applications created by NYP students in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Among these applications, Mind Reader is an interesting application for children. It couples a unique feature with directional sensor capability on Windows Phone to create a fun game for consumers of all ages.

“Developing for the Windows Phone platform is a pleasant experience,” said Zhen Zhen, who is also a Nokia Developer Champion and Nokia Developer Certified Trainer in the Nokia Developer Consultancy Network “Microsoft Visual Studio is a great tool, because we find it’s familiar to most developers. We are able to train students and quickly gear them with the necessary competencies to turn their ideas into innovative mobile solutions.”

To learn more about ShakePicPro, visit: http://support.citi.edu.sg/shakepicpro.html

A simple, addictive, action-packed game is the most recent release from one of Nokia’s most successful developers, UTV Indiagames. Along with a slew of other applications, Monster Truck Dash has helped UTV IndiaGames exceed 91 million downloads across 190 countries to date. UTV Indiagames is among the 350 developers to have driven more than 1 million downloads each via Nokia Store. 

Monster Truck Dash is available at a cost of1 Euro for Nokia Series 40 and S60 phones. The app leverages Nokia’s networking and social connect technology to create a high-powered game in which users challenge their friends and family to monster truck races on visually engaging courses. The result is an action-packed and challenging experience that users can share with their friends.

“We are thrilled to have crossed the 90 million download mark in the Nokia Store. It is an exciting and proud moment for the team,” said Vishal Gondal, CEO of UTV Indiagames. “The Nokia Store has opened up avenues for us to successfully exhibit and sell a variety of applications, and we have managed to hit this tremendous milestone in just two short years.  Overall, our partnership with Nokia is helping to take our applications to the next level in India and beyond.”

UTV Indiagames develops Java apps for use on a wide range of Nokia Series 40 and S60 devices, and they often include in-app advertising. Available on more than 138 Nokia devices, UTV IndiaGames offers a variety of games and applications that appeal to various demographics. The company offers  100 paid apps and over 300 free ad-supported apps, giving customers an enormous range of choices, while also monetizing their content.

Founded in 1999 with a five member team, UTV Indiagames now employs more than 300 employees and is India’s benchmark mobile and online games company, as well as a leading global mobile game publisher.

UTV Indiagames’ success over the years has not gone unnoticed, with the company winning several industry awards in 2009 and 2010: The Maharashtra Information Technology Award 2009, the IDC Enterprise Innovation Awards 2010, the Movers & Shakers 2010 award, the FICCI BAF Award for Mobile Gaming 2010, and the application Brucelee Dragon Warrior winning the People’s Choice Award at IMGA 2010.

UTV Indiagames continues to be a company to watch, especially given their plans to expand their app developments their apps to the Windows Phone platform. With a focus on Windows Phone Marketplace, UTV Indiagames is in the process of developing their first cricket game. Useful tools available within Nokia’s developer community will help enable UTV Indiagames’ success across multiple platforms, allowing them to reach even more users with their fun and socially interactive games.  Nokia is proud to be a part of UTV Indiagames’ mobile publishing success.