Enough of tear-jerker reality shows on television. It’s time for one that engages consumers for developing the next killer app.
Apps or applications are software that a consumer uses for doing useful or fun things on cell-phones.
As the smartphone battle heats up, handset-makers like Nokia and Research In Motion (makers of Blackberry) are wooing the consumer and app developers at the same time for that big “app” idea.
‘Your wish is my app’
Nokia, for example, has come up with “Nokia Lumia – Your wish is my app.”
Consumers come up with ideas to be developed as an application and the top 36 will be engaged in a battle of wits on a reality show (to be aired by a private channel).
“The ‘Your wish is my app’ campaign is a perfect one that’ll help us create applications that are for the consumer and by the consumer,” Gerard Rego, Director – Developer Experience, Nokia India, told Business Line, in an e-mailed response.
The company has already received nearly 35,000 suggestions so far. Vishal Gondal, Managing Director, Disney UTV, maintained that people often fail to capitalise on ideas following lack of access to the right platforms. “In this regard, Nokia’s initiative would help,” he added.
App Developers
Blackberry, meanwhile, is wooing the app developer community. Its recent contest — ‘BlackBerry 10 Apps Challenge’ — was aimed at giving developers a ‘chance to flaunt their best app ideas’ for the new BlackBerry operating system (OS). The contest allows an amateur/professional developer to come up with an application and get it downloaded on the BlackBerry World (its app store).
“The whole idea of BlackBerry 10 is to create a user experience far superior than competing OSs and create an open ecosystem. Our idea is to move beyond a smartphone platform and have an integrated and connected system,” Annie Mathew, Head of Alliances and Developer Relations, India, Research In Motion (makers of BlackBerry), said.
Experimentation
According to Mathew, such engagement initiatives between handset makers and consumers or app developers would be the way forward in the coming days.
Market sources add that though these initiatives may be new in India, the Taiwanese Government tried out a similar reality show (called App Star) a few years back to develop an ecosystem for local developers.
“The whole idea of these initiatives is to give a mainstream perspective and get people talking about the app ecosystem especially in India which is still a nascent smartphone market,” Kunal Bajaj, an independent telecom analyst said.
abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in