Difference of device w/o contract from developers point of view

Hi all!

First of all, I'm new to mobile development - so be kind to me if some question may sound silly to you.

I'm on the way to buy a mobile phone (N73) to do some development (both Java and native Symbian). My question is if I should buy one from a carrier at reduced price or one without contract and buy a SIM card from a carrier.

Interesting for me is if there is any and if yes which diffenerence from a developers point of view.

What are the components and restrictions a carrier may have installed on a device he gets from a manufacturer?

Would an application developed for a device without contract work as well on devices licensed directly to a carrier?

Where do operator certificates/domains play a role.

Thanks for you help,
Andreas.

hi Andreas,
yes, data carriers can ship you rebranded/customized Nokia devices, there are few threads on that on forum:
api availability and security restrictions (speaking about Java) can differ from what you could expect from MIPD/JTWI specification or from what you can read in Nokia docs,
So buy device e.g. at Nokia Shop and use various sim cards from different operators for tests (I've started that way with 6680)

[URL="http://forum.nokia.com/Technical_Library/FNTL/Variance_in_security_domains_MIDlets_on_operator_variants.htm"]Variance in security domains for MIDlets on certain operator variant phones[/URL]

hth,
regards,
Peter

Hi Peter,

as I understand in the worst this can go that far that an operator may disallows applications, not signed with their certificate, to run on a device as soon as it needs restricted API calls, right?
Maybe targeting to maximize sales from the carriers own download portal?

From the article you referenced ('variance in security ...') it sounds that the manufacturer has to change the domain policy for a carrier-branded device and the carrier cannot do it himself.
What else could there be the difference if I buy a device from a manufacturers or 'carrier-independant' shop and use different carriers SIM cards. Is it that the device may behave different if I use different carriers SIM cards?

thanks,
Andreas.

One additional difference is the network access settings. On branded phones they are preset to work properly, on a generic phone you need to set the network settings yourself.

Hartti

Hi Andreas,

I suggest you to buy the sim free unlocked new mobile from the nokia shop etc. You can test on it what ever you want to develop ;)

best of luck.

Jawad