Nokia rewards indigenous apps developers with smart phones

In its bid to encourage indegenous application developers to build locally relevant applications for its platform, Finnish mobile devices manufacturer, Nokia, has rewarded winners of its mobile app competitionsome smartphones as prizes.Making the presentation at a brief ceremony held in Lagos, Teemu Kiijarvi, head of Nokia's Ecosystem Developer Experience (EDX) said the move was one of the ways Nokia was demonstrating its commitment to supporting local developers in building innovative applications on its proprietary platform ' the Nokia store.According to him Nokia's decision to support developers is based on the need to have a rich ecosystem of exciting locally-built applications to suit the needs of Nigerians, adding that two months ago, Nokia organized a free three-day training for over 200 Nigerian developers.Mr. Kiijarvi also denied speculations that Nokia was on the verge of facing out phones built on the Symbian platform. According to him, Nokia has actually developed new Symbian updates, which have greatly improved the user-interface of most Nokia phones.Nokia's new monetization opportunities for developers are tailored for local markets and include integrated operator billing with 112 operators in 36 markets, more than 25 times more operator billing integrations than Nokia's nearest competitor. Nokia Store has seen integrated operator billing increase consumer transactions by up to four times and this, coupled with Nokia's beta programs for in-app billing and in-app advertising, means more revenue opportunities for developers on Symbian.Developers who won the contest include Mr. Ajibola Aiyedogbon, Seyi Eluwole, Oyewole Oyediran, Adesoye Gbolahan and Oluwarotimi Akintewe. Speaking on his application, Mr. Ajibola Aiyedogbon whose application (My Cash) on expense tracking is already enjoying downloads on Nokia Store commended Nokia for providing him with its platform to reach people with his application. He said he was hopeful that the downloads would ultimately be financially rewarding. He also called on other developers to embrace the Nokia platform.
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