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One Developer, Over Seven Million Downloads
OviPublisherSuccesses | 13 May, 2011 02:10
Based in Italy, Pizero Design has found success publishing free and paid theme apps for a wide range of Nokia Symbian devices. Pizero's success can be attributed to the company's sole developer, Michele Cerreta. Pizero Design has published nearly 30 theme apps in Ovi Store, receiving over seven million downloads from consumers in more than 190 markets.
Originally Michele Cerreta dabbled in app design as a hobby. This began with the release of theme designs on his personal website in 2007. As his download numbers started to grow over the following year, Cerreta was motivated to continue to improve his app development skills and the quality of his apps. When Nokia invited him to join Ovi Store, Cerreta recalls how this inspired him to build a business out of his hobby and make mobile app development his profession.
Although Cerreta is now a full-fledged professional in the mobile app industry, he still considers himself an app designer rather than an app developer.
For an app designer, the most significant parts of app development are the designer's inspiration and vision. To best translate his vision to a consumer, Michele Cerreta dedicates at least a month to cultivate each theme so the app best reflects his vision while retaining the highest quality possible.
At Pizero Design, a theme must pass through four stages of development:
- Design and research - this stage is dependent on length of time it takes to think of the initial idea for a theme. It can happen as quickly as in a day or as long as a month.
- Development - the theme's graphics are produced, followed by the creation of the app.
- Testing - the theme is rigorously tested for an entire week and must pass through two different techniques that extensively assess the compatibility of an app on multiple devices:
- First, an app is methodically tested on a handful of real devices for at least a day on each device. An app is tested on at least five different mobile devices, and this meticulous process can take up to seven days until Cerreta is satisfied.
- The second step is a diligent check of the app's compatibility on other devices using Nokia's Remote Device Access (RDA) service. This tool allows Cerreta to access a pool of Symbian devices in real-time to test his app. In total, Cerreta typically spends over a week thoroughly testing each app.
- Launch - to prepare the theme for publication to Ovi Store, bugs must be fixed and marketing assets are created.
For advice from Michele Cerreta on how to personalize and customize a Symbian device, check out this video:
Throughout the development process, Michele Cerreta is mindful of what he calls the top three challenges to theme design:
- Designing a theme that is free of errors
- Consumer appeal
- Stands out from competitors
"The key to overcoming these challenges and successfully creating theme apps is hard work, setting high-quality standards for each app, and marketing," said Michele Cerreta.
Pizero Design often coordinates with Nokia to launch promotional marketing campaigns for the company's themes. Cerreta works closely with members of the Ovi Store merchandising team to promote his apps through for a limited time. Typically, he will promote only one item at a time, over a period of seven days. His themes are then promoted across the store on the first page of the store or on Ovi Spotlight (with banner ads). During this time period, Cerreta discounts the price of the theme by 50 percent. The promotions are run globally and affect every market where Pizero Design sells their theme apps.
Aside from promotions, Pizero Design credits reviews of their themes to their download success.
"My themes have seen great visibility from bloggers and members of the press, resulting in positive reviews. This kind of exposure is invaluable," said Cerreta.
Awarding Michele Cerreta for his hard work, Nokia also named him an Ovi Store Premium Publisher in 2009.
"Creating themes for Symbian is completely different from any other developer activity," said Cerreta. "We find it to be fun, but it can also be demanding. Thankfully, Forum Nokia is a great resource to use when trying to overcome the challenges that are often found with app design. We look forward to our continued work with Forum Nokia."
Two of Pizero Design's most popular theme apps - Pure Gold and Earth - best exemplify the high quality which Pizero Design strives to deliver. Pure Gold and Earth were each developed within a week, and both theme apps used Carbide.UI to unlock and optimize the customizable parts of a Nokia Symbian device.
Pure Gold, developed with Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), is optimized for both portrait and landscape modes. Pure Gold features nine customized graphics for a consumer's device, including the wallpaper, toolbars and menu buttons. Pure Gold also includes Zeta Icons, an exclusive set of folder icons customized by Pizero Design to fit the company's variety of themes. Today, Pure Gold has been downloaded in more than 125 markets and has been featured in multiple Ovi Store promotional activities, including a spotlight in Ovi Store's front page and in Ovi Guide, an online magazine produced by Ovi by Nokia.
Pizero Design has also held other promotions in Ovi Store for its free and paid apps. As a result of the promotions featuring Pizero Design’s apps on Ovi Store’s front page and spotlight banners, the developer saw a 500 percent increase in sales and revenue. For promotions that spotlighted Pizero’s free apps, the developer also received an average of 50 downloads per day in total for his promoted free apps throughout the duration of the promotion.
Pure Gold is compatible with Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) and New Symbian devices. The theme app is available for $2.99 USD.
Earth by Pizero Design, developed with both Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and bitmaps, is a mixed mode theme, meaning the theme was developed with two different types of technologies. It is available for Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) devices [BP5]and is free to download. As one of Pizero Design's most popular apps, Earth received more than two million downloads within a little less than three months.
A premium version of this theme, Earth PRO, is available for New Symbian devices and costs $.99 USD to download. The theme features exclusive icons and a real photo background.
"Pizero Design is genius," wrote one reviewer. "Michael's themes are stunning and are now a standard on my mobile device."
Themes by Pizero Design range in price from free to download to $4.99 USD. Themes are typically compatible for Nokia Symbian (5.0 and 3.x) devices, while some themes are also compatible with New Symbian devices including the N8 and E7.
Foreseeing the promise of opportunity with the New Symbian platform, Cerreta is transitioning to use the New Symbian platform for all future theme apps. He already has 10-12 theme apps developed for New Symbian devices and over a dozen more compatible apps that will soon be released on Ovi Store.
If interested in creating your own themes for Nokia devices, visit Forum Nokia Wiki.
For a complete overview of all Pizero Design apps, visit Ovi Store.
Want to distribute your applications globally to millions of Nokia users via Ovi Store? Visit our Ovi Publish page on how you can get started.
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Re: One Developer, Over Seven Million Downloads
OviPublisherSuccesses | 16/05/2011, 19:02
Not sure what you mean by "can't show images". Images appear for us when tested on several browsers on different OSes. Can you be more specific?
One Developer, Over Seven Million Downloads
prahalad | 20/05/2011, 06:47
I have been downloading and enjoying themes by Pizero Design. All of them are beautiful creations. I like the colors, graphics and how well they are harmonized. Amazing work. Thank you Michele Cerreta. Thank you Pizero Design.
images
joukovierumaki | 16/05/2011, 12:45
Is there any reasone why Nokia blogs can't show images?
I dont have this issue with any onther blog