Now playing: Soundtracker Radio, a multi-platform Nokia success story

OviPublisherSuccesses | 16 February, 2012 20:01

How do you develop the ultimate music app? We talked with the team at Soundtracker to find out.

             

 

Soundtracker Radio makes it easy to discover and play music in real-time with your friends and neighbors. With 12 million tracks available, users can create and discover unique personal radio stations, and play them in real-time with friends via Facebook, Twitter as well as with anybody nearby directly from a Nokia phone. 

The free Soundtracker Radio app was developed in 16 weeks using various technologies including GPS, cell ID, Nokia Maps API, and in-app advertising for use on Nokia devices. “With the higher usage of Soundtracker by Nokia users we have experienced growth in ad revenues,” explained Daniele Calabrese, founder and CEO. “We also expect to see an increase in effective CPMs over the course of the year.”

The Soundtracker service is available in 10 languages worldwide including: Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian, with support for 10 additional languages currently in the works.

    

Soundtracker on Nokia Series 40 phones

Soundtracker is available for all of Nokia’s phone types, including Series 40, Symbian (S60 and S^3), Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone and soon a Qt-based version will be available, too. In addition to the Nokia devices that support Soundtracker, the music service is also available on Android, iPhone and Bada, as well as in HTML5 on the web, Google TV and Samsung TV.

With stiff competition from other music services, the Soundtracker team knew they had to make a splash with the launch of their new music service. Soundtracker had a leg-up on the competition, giving consumers access to 12 million tracks, the largest catalog in the world for Internet radio and 10 times larger than its nearest competitor. By distributing their app in the Nokia Store, Soundtracker Radio was able to reach a massive global audience across 60 Nokia phones, ranging from  Series 40, S60 5th Edition, and S^3, as well as the latest Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle-based phones, and reached a milestone of 700,000 downloads in just five months.

Using Soundtracker on Windows Phone, an individual can buy concert tickets for artists in their music library by using in-app billing via PayPal. Soundtracker expects to enable operator billing with Nokia later this year. Also, in partnership with musixmatch.com and songkick.com, users get song lyrics while listening to music and can also check messages from their friends and followers in the Soundtracker inbox. These features will soon be available in the next version of the Soundracker app for Nokia’s Symbian smartphones built using Qt.

To continue building momentum for the mobile app, Soundtracker participated in a Nokia Store global marketing campaign in early January that ran for one week and generated 140,000+ additional downloads, and they just wrapped up  a second marketing campaign that garnered 95,000 new downloads. The results of these Nokia marketing activities and in-app advertising, in partnership with Inneractive, have been amazing. “We increased our user base three-fold in just four weeks, we increased user retention by 45%, and increased our revenues by 80%” said Calabrese. “With the level of access we have been given to develop for Nokia, including support from Nokia Beta Labs and Nokia Developer PRO, it has been a much easier experience than developing for other platforms where the only access is an online community of practice.”

Calabrese called the announcement of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership an “eye opener” and shared, “I was amazed by the fact that the two companies would work together, and I really wanted to be involved from day one.”

The Soundtracker team is in the process of developing a Qt-based version of their app that is scheduled to go live in Nokia Store by the end of Q1. With its unique multiple-platform availability, Soundtracker is giving consumers around the world a compelling music-sharing experience, setting Soundtracker Radio apart from the competition.

To learn more about Soundtracker, watch this Nokia Developer video with CEO Daniele Calabrese:

 

Americas , NDSuccess , GeneralSuccess , CrossPlatform | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Nokia developer success: Pico Brothers on the road to 100 million downloads

OviPublisherSuccesses | 09 February, 2012 15:01

We first wrote about Pico Brothers in March 2011, around the time they hit the 20 million download mark for their Symbian^3 and S60 apps in Nokia Store. Since that time, the Finnish Pico Brothers team, Niklas Karlström and Kristian Engsjö – along with house dog Viggo – have continued to tick off milestone after milestone, hitting 30, 50, and then 80 million downloads in the Nokia Store from customers in more than 200 markets worldwide.

Niklas and Kristian focus heavily on app design, aiming to create simple, easy-to-use applications that look great on a variety of Nokia phones. Nokia’s Qt helps the developers go from idea generation to finished application quickly. Using Qt Quick and QML, developing an application can take anywhere from a couple of hours to one month. “The ability to develop apps quickly is a big part of our current success,” said Kristian.

Pico Brothers initially chose to develop for Nokia given the huge potential to reach millions of consumers around the globe – in just one online store. In their ongoing hunt for the killer app, they’ve released approximately 100 games, tools and lifestyle applications. “Our biggest measure of success is happy customers,” said Kristian. 

A number of Pico Brothers apps are offered for free and supported by advertising, while others are sold as paid downloads in the Nokia Store. The company has successfully monetized their apps in the UK, France and Germany; and they’ve also experienced success by creating localized versions of some of their apps.

To Pico Brothers co-founder Niklas, the most rewarding thing about being an app developer is “being able to decide on our own day – to go snowmobiling or fishing on the ice. We have a lot of fun, and it’s nice to be out here, close to nature and the sea. You get inspired not just from an office, but from your surroundings.” See for yourself in this new Nokia Developer video why Niklas and Kristian believe developing with Nokia is “the most fun thing in the world.”


For more information about Pico Brothers apps, please visit: http://www.picobrothers.com/.

 

Qt , Europe , BusinessSuccess , NDSuccess | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Award-winning Digital Chocolate tastes sweet success in Nokia Store

OviPublisherSuccesses | 07 February, 2012 15:25

Digital Chocolate has rapidly emerged as a leader in new digital media and social games, best known for their engaging mobile games like Millionaire City, Zombie Lane, Army Attack, Rollercoaster Rush and Tower Bloxx. In 2010, Digital Chocolate was one of the fastest-growing publishers of Facebook social games with virtual goods.  Focused on original brands and technology for a wide variety of platforms, the company has created more than 100 different award-winning games and applications available in the Nokia Store with more than 30 million Nokia Store app downloads from consumers in 200 countries.

The company developed the mobile version of its smash hit Facebook game Millionaire City to allow a wider audience to enjoy the game.  With the challenge of creating an original game in the best quality without exceeding costs, a solid team of 10 developed the first version of the game for the mobile platform in 16 weeks. “We are particularly pleased by the short time to market of our apps – the games go live in the Nokia Store very soon after being submitted,” said Miikka Kukkosuo, VP Regional Sales.

  

The mechanics of Millionaire City combine real-time and strategic developments that bring a new edge to mobile games, making them closer to social games than ever before with unique graphics and a friendly user interface.

Players are challenged to build a personal urban empire from the ground up by creating luxurious houses, crowded commercial skyscrapers, gorgeous decorations and unique world wonders. Millionaire City is a free app, but with the in-app billing feature, players can buy in-game currency via PayPal or other payment providers and purchase exclusive items in the game to advance faster. Using the convenient in-app billing model, Digital Chocolate has tens of thousands of paying customers and the team is very happy with the results of this model.

 

Developed using J2ME, Millionaire City is available for free in the Nokia Store in six languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Portuguese; and it is available for the Nokia N95, N97, N73, 6270 and other compatible phones.

Inside each app, Digital Chocolate also includes a “Get More Games” option, which features other games with screenshots and a direct link to the Nokia Store download page. “We have been cooperating closely with Nokia since 2002 and have been uploading our games to the Nokia Store since its launch. It’s been a long and fruitful relationship, and we’ve been happy to see the Store grow,” said Kukkosuo.

“Some of our best customer reviews come from the Nokia Store,” said Kukkosuo. “Developing for Nokia is always a good experience as the support and reactivity of their team is always excellent.”

Digital Chocolate has two games currently available on Windows Phone 7, Tower Bloxx New York and 3D Brick Breaker Revolution, and the company plans on launching more of their social games for the Windows Phone platform in the future.

Digital Chocolate is a three-time winner of Mobile Entertainment’s Best Game Developer Award; GDC Online Innovation Award nominee; AlwaysOn OnMobile 100 Top Private Company List; and is among PocketGamers’s Top 50 game publishers in 2011.

Europe , Series40 , NDSuccess , GeneralSuccess | Permalink | Add comment | Trackbacks (0)

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