A Hit with the Kiddos: Spice Labs Success Story

OviPublisherSuccesses | 28 September, 2011 22:33

In 2009, Spice Labs was founded with a vision to create easy to use, engaging and relevant applications for mobile phones. The company’s app Kiddo won an award at the Nokia N8 Hackathon at Nokia World 2010. As we gear up for Nokia World 2011, we’ll take a look at the app’s – and the company’s – success since that award. Milestones in the Nokia Store include combined downloads of more than 9.6 million for their many applications, including the Hangman app crossing the one million download mark in just a few months.   

  spice labs case studyThe Kiddo Experience

The Spice Labs Kiddo app was born from personal experience. Many of the company’s founding members have young children  at home, and they’ve all fallen victim to those kids snatching their mobile phones right out of their hands to play games or search for other interesting content. Although the kids had fun playing with their parents’ phones, there was actually very little content designed just for them – something to keep them engaged, educated and safe. Spice Labs – as parents and as developers – stepped in to fill that gap.  

One of the early results was Kiddo, an anytime, anywhere digital tutor for mobile phones. The app is designed not only to entertain your kids, but also to familiarize them with educational basics like alphabets and numbers. Kiddo uses vibrant graphics, sounds and music and interactive elements to create an experience young people love; and includes a child lock option for the parents’ peace of mind. Users can even customize the Kiddo experience by adding their own voice to the app.

“As a mobile application developer and mother of a 2-year-old, I consider myself very fortunate to work on projects where I can bring a dual perspective to the table – from the creator and the end-user,” said Arunima Shekhar, project manager at Spice Labs. “I believe in the adage that the best products are made when developers are solving their own problems – necessity drives invention. That’s why it was a no-brainer for me to join the Spice Labs team and work on Kiddo.”

  

Kiddo is an education tool as much as it is an entertainment experience. Spice Labs focus groups have found that 60% of kids who participated in a learning exercise with Kiddo registered a significant gain in the efficiency and speed of learning, memorization and pronunciation of words. In addition, approximately 10 per cent of the kids studied were able to increase their vocabulary compared to peers not armed with the Kiddo experience.

“The results we have seen are amazing. What started as a way to keep peace at family dinner is now being used as a serious teaching aid,” said Prashant Singh, Spice Labs product manager. 

Based on their experience using the graphics, sound, multimedia and touch interface of Nokia mobile phones and smartphones, Spice Labs is now looking to expand their content portfolio for child-friendly apps and casual games.

Developing with Reach
The Spice Labs Kiddo app, which is available globally on Symbian^3, S60 3rd edition, S60 5th edition, and J2Me devices was developed using a mix of Qt and native Symbian programming. The development team was able to exploit the processing power of Nokia phones and their touch-screen capabilities.

“Qt has really been a blessing for our developer team as it has allowed us to keep the majority of our design and development independent of the underlying hardware and platform variations, meaning we freed up development bandwidth and creativity to get our developers back to what they do best – writing awesome apps,” said Prashant Singh.

With just three designers and five developers, Spice Labs was able to develop the first version of the Kiddo app in just two weeks. From there, Nokia helped the company overcome one of their key hurdles: reaching the right set of users.

“Nokia offers a huge reach in terms of geography and demographics. If you can think of a cool app idea, chances are there will be a sizeable potential user base with Nokia. Nokia was a must for us,” continued Singh.   

In addition to consumer reach, Spice Labs also took advantage of the vibrant Nokia Symbian developer community and the developer support system at Nokia Developer, which they found to be very proactive and supportive throughout the development cycle. Through local sales unit (LSU) and global spotlights the company also saw huge upticks in downloads – 6-10x increased downloads from an LSU spotlight, and an 8-10x increase in overall downloads from a global spotlight.

“This is the kind of support that’s missing in other platforms,” concluded Singh. 

Spice Labs is a 40-person division of S Mobility. Their Kiddo app is available to download for free in the Nokia Store.

Qt , IMEA , NDSuccess , GeneralSuccess , CrossPlatform | Permalink | Add comment | Trackbacks (0)

Idevio’s Locago app is more than a map for millions

OviPublisherSuccesses | 22 September, 2011 02:29

Any map application can show you street names and help you navigate. It takes a special app, however, to integrate everything you need to know about a place into one central location. Locago is a map and local search app that not only provides directions and GPS support, but also lets users search Wikipedia and Flickr, get the local weather forecast and browse visitor’s guides. By embedding additional layers of information into a map interface, Locago provides a better experience for users relaxing in their hometown or exploring a new city.

Developed by Sweden-based Idevio, the Locago application is based on the company’s unique method to compress and stream digital maps, called RaveGeo. RaveGeo is a multi-resolution format and software for vector-based geographical information with high compression and fast access.  Beyond Locago, Idevio develops additional mapping, routing and geocoding software components for web, mobile and embedded systems that are easy for developers to customize and integrate.

Application Layers

Using Locago, end users can learn almost anything about the place they are in. In addition to pulling up a map with street-level detail, global coverage and directions capabilities, users can enjoy features not available in other map apps. For example, users can share their location with friends on Locago and meet up more easily. You can also locate nearby WiFi hotspots, bus stops and houses for sale. Locago can even show your personal calendar entries on a map, display 3-D images of famous landmarks and search restaurant reviews.

“We were disappointed with the current map applications and the spread of our own map technology. We wanted to show that maps with many layers can run smoothly on low-end devices,” said Patric Nordström, CEO, Idevio.

idevio success story idevio success story

Locago currently supports more than 60 different data sources and layers, a number that will only go up thanks to Idevio’s open API. Anyone can develop new layers for the application, which results in a dynamic application with ever increasing use-case scenarios for users. The application does not need special or high-end hardware to work and easily runs on most Java Enabled devices. 

Locago has low bandwidth demands, though an internet connection is mandatory. Users can get Locago for free from Nokia Store and download maps to their phone for US $4.99. An ad-free version, called Locago+, can be purchased for US $1.99

Developing Locago

Development of Locago began in 2007, and the application first launched in 2008. “The Nokia Java implementation, the tools and the store are solid and great to work with,” said Nordström. “It's amazing to reach such a large audience and get so much positive feedback.”

With a team of less than five, Idevio was able to create an application with outstanding performance that was not hindered by streaming large amounts of data. Idevio also worked hard to ensure that the abundant information can be read easily on a relatively small screen.

Results

The Locago application has been downloaded more than three million times from the Nokia Store in 2011 alone. The cumulative downloads from Nokia Store are close to seven million. Also, more downloads come from Nokia Store than from Locago’s other platforms combined.

"We're overwhelmed by the tremendous response Locago got in the Nokia Store. We just wanted to build an app that we wanted to use ourselves," said Nordström.

Locago is available around the world and is currently in use in 216 countries. The application was recently translated from English-only to 15 additional languages, which resulted in a 100 percent increase in downloads.

Introducing a touch interface also had an impact on the number of downloads. The first version of Locago was based on devices equipped with a joystick and soft keys. As mobile platforms have evolved, like the Nokia Series 40, Idevio updated the application to run on a touch and type interface, too.

The application has also met with critical acclaim in the press, with a reviewer at Know Your Mobile writing, “All in all, this is an extremely useful app, and the option to publish your own content in its layers function is the cherry on the cake!”

Location Based Services , Ovi Store , Location | Permalink | Add comment | Trackbacks (0)

NetQin Delivers Confidence and Control to Millions of Consumers

OviPublisherSuccesses | 15 September, 2011 17:46

Today, more consumers use their Nokia phones for both professional and personal use than ever before. This growing trend also finds users concerned about the safety of their data on their phones and consumers are seeking protection from anti-virus apps. Leading in popularity among anti-virus apps is NetQin Mobile Inc., a company that has delivered mobile security solutions since 2005. Proven to be successful in the global market, NetQin's anti-virus and security apps have reached more than 3 million downloads in Ovi Store across more than 190 markets.

 (More)

S60 , Security , Symbian C++ , Ovi Store , Files/Data , China | Permalink | Add comment | Trackbacks (0)

Featured links
Develop
Distribution
Blogs
Community
Resources
Site Map
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Nokia Developer aims to help you create apps and publish them so you can connect with users around the world.

京ICP备05048969号  © Copyright Nokia 2013 All rights reserved