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Mobstar's Guide to Theme Design
OviPublisherSuccesses | 15 July, 2011 22:15

Mobstar Media Ltd., has experienced ongoing success with their downloadable themes in Ovi Store, reaching over three million downloads across more than 150 markets. This achievement comes from conquering the hurdles found in the innovation of design and device compatibility - challenges typically faced by all theme developers. Today, Mobstar Media's growing ensemble of free and paid theme apps, such as Italy Football Theme and Hip Hop Graphics Theme, stands as a testament to the company's smart approach to tackling these challenges to consistently deliver quality content in Ovi Store.

In a world where theme apps are commonplace, Mobstar Media credits their overall success to the rapid execution of their fresh design concepts, careful monitoring of market trends and the consistency of the high quality graphics embodied in their themes.

Since its inception in 2005, Mobstar Media has aimed to perfect their app development process while remaining true to their mission - to leverage their expertise and creativity to produce original, commercially-successful and compelling mobile content. The company, headquartered in Brighton, United Kingdom, also has offices in the United States. Currently, Mobstar Media produces and promotes a variety of original mobile theme apps for Nokia devices and offers its services to clients who desire to bring their brand to mobile users through custom mobile apps, advertisements and more.

At the core of the company's app development process is their design and development teams, which typically consist of two designers, one developer and a formatter. The first step taken by their team in the development process, which takes an average of three days to complete, is determining what will appeal to their targeted consumer. The company constantly tracks consumer preferences through monitoring their app sales and general trends in Ovi Store.

"Ovi Store releases a wealth of information to developers about their apps," said Jon Mewett, Delivery Manager at Mobstar Media. "In our Ovi Store reports, we can see exactly how our apps perform and can even narrow performance by market. This kind of access is invaluable to developers because it allows us to better target the preferences of our consumers in each market. With this insight, we are able to create apps tailored to the tastes of our consumers, thus increasing our chances for app download success."

Using this data, the development team creates a number of different designs and then selects the most appropriate fit for their intended audience. Once the team selected a design, it is then handed over to the developer and formatter who bring the theme app to fruition. Frequently, they utilize Adobe Photoshop to create the graphics and Carbide.ui to format the finished graphics for different mobile devices.

"Nokia presents developers a lot more freedom compared to other mobile phone manufacturers," said Mewett. "With Nokia technologies, such as Carbide.ui, we are given the liberty to customize nearly every aspect of our themes without heavily relying on hand coding. This lowers app design barriers and expands our opportunities for creativity."

Mobstar Media also strives to remain agile in the ever-changing mobile landscape and stays up-to-date on new devices and technologies. This instills the confidence within the company that their apps are always leveraging the latest technologies to deliver fresh content that is compatible with the newest devices on the market. For this information, the company often turns to Forum Nokia's developer community for answers.

"Forum Nokia's community is amazing and has helped us out more times than I can count," said Mewett. "When working with new technologies or new devices, we sometimes run into roadblocks, but Forum Nokia always offers the resources we need to get the job done."

"It is also important to communicate your new ideas with other developers - Forum Nokia is a fantastic hub that connects you with developers across the globe," said Mewett. "On Forum Nokia, we can find inspiration in ideas from other developers and also receive constructive feedback for our apps and ideas as well."

Mobstar Media's design-focused, data-driven approach to theme app development has proven to be successful and has facilitated the company's efforts to create an abundance of dynamic and colorful theme apps, with 124 paid theme apps available in Ovi Store. Varying from the whimsical Neon Lotus app to the sports-dedicated Italy Football Theme, these apps appeal to nearly every kind of consumer. This has translated to Ovi Store success, with Mobstar Media's apps often becoming bestsellers shortly after they are released in Ovi Store.

"I've played around with Mobstar Media's different themes and they work as great as they look," one reviewer wrote. "What I love about these themes is that they are so vibrant and so unique compared to a lot of themes currently out there in the market - definitely worth the price!"

To boost sales for its paid apps, Mobstar Media occasionally will participate in global promotions and reduce the cost of popular paid apps at a 50 percent discount[KB5]. The company's most recent promotion is for Graffiti Boombox, an ultra-stylish theme app featuring black and gold accents and a classic wallpaper that recalls the golden age of hip-hop. The wallpaper is also animated on some compatible devices.

"Promotions are the key to our success in Ovi store," said Mewett. "During any promotion, we see a massive increase in sales and app downloads."

The collection of Mobstar Media's theme apps ranges in price from free to $1.99 USD. Mobstar Media's apps are available for Nokia Symbian (New Symbian and 5.0) devices.

For a complete overview of Mobstar Media's apps, visit Ovi Store.