IT professionals around the world are collectively more interested in developing and deploying mobile applications for Google’s Android platform than any other mobile OS. A new study conducted by IBM and published earlier this week included data from more than 4,000 IT professionals around the world, offering insights into a number of technology trends in 2011 and beyond. No space is hotter than mobile right now, and IBM’s survey found that 70% of IT pros are planning to develop and deploy applications for the Android platform. Read on for more.

Despite becoming increasingly popular in the enterprise space, iOS development only garnered interest from 49% of respondents. Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform found itself in the sights of 35% of IT professionals polled and the BlackBerry operating system, once the overwhelming leader among businesses around the world, is being targeted by just 25% of respondents.

“Mobile computing is firmly established in the marketplace and offers a means for IT professional growth as more and more organizations build applications,” IBM stated in its report. “Developers looking to increase their mobile skills would be smart to look to Android. With its large and growing global install base, Android is ranked as being the top mobile platform over the next 24 months. This open source platform based on Java and XML offers a much shorter learning curve, and this contributes to its popularity with IT professionals. iOS remains strong in the U.S. and other developed countries.”

IBM also found that three out of four survey respondents are currently working on mobile computing solutions in some capacity, and that figure is expected to grow to 85% within the next two years. “As an effective channel in reaching many users and as a means of increasing the productivity and efficiency of an organization’s workforce, mobile is viewed by respondents as the second most ‘in demand’ area for software development,” the report said. Enterprise and industry-specific applications are among the top areas of focus, while entertainment and gaming are obviously at the bottom of the list for most IT professionals.

At least one investor is calling on Nintendo to begin developing titles for Apple’s iOS platform, a move away from the company’s standard practice of developing for its own portable gaming consoles. “Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry,” Stats Investment Management Co. fund manager Masamitsu Ohki said. “Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.” Despite Ohki’s push and recent rumors that Nintendo would create a Pokémon title for Android and iOS, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata has said his company will not develop games for mobile platforms. Nintendo’s latest portable gaming system, the 3DS, was met with lukewarm reviews when it launched in the United States and the company has attributed a lack of attractive games to its relatively poor sales performance. The Japanese gaming company recently dropped the price to $169.99, nearly $100 cheaper than its debut price point, to attract new consumers. It also announced a new 3DS “Ambassador Program” that will provide 20 free games to anyone who purchases a device and signs into the Nintendo eStore by the end of the day on August 11th.

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HTC has issued a statement naming the first phones that will receive unlocked bootloader updates this coming September. In a statement to BGR via email, the company said that the international version of its Sensation smartphone, T-Mobile’s Sensation 4G, and Sprint’s EVO 3D will be among the first phones to receive a patch that enables bootloader unlocking.”While we wish we could flip a simple switch and unlock all bootloaders across our device portfolio, this is actually a complex challenge that requires a new software build and extensive testing to deliver the best possible customer experience,” HTC said in a statement. “We’re in the testing phase for the unlocking capability now, and we expect it to be fully operational by early September for devices that have received the software updates. We’ll continue rolling out the unlocking capability over time to other devices as part of maintenance releases and new shipments.” HTC noted that it is continuing its commitment to unlocked bootloaders in an effort to support the developer community, and said that it will issue updates on its progress every few weeks. An unlocked bootloader will allow users to customize their devices more easily. Read on for the full statement from HTC.

We wanted to provide an update on HTC’s progress with bringing bootloader unlocking to our newest phones. We know how excited some of you are for this capability, and we’ve put significant resources behind making this change as soon as possible. While we wish we could flip a simple switch and unlock all bootloaders across our device portfolio, this is actually a complex challenge that requires a new software build and extensive testing to deliver the best possible customer experience.

We’re thrilled to announce today that software updates to support bootloader unlocking will begin rolling out in August for the global HTC Sensation, followed by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile USA and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. We’re in the testing phase for the unlocking capability now, and we expect it to be fully operational by early September for devices that have received the software updates. We’ll continue rolling out the unlocking capability over time to other devices as part of maintenance releases and new shipments.

HTC continues its commitment to unlocking bootloaders and supporting the developer community. Because of the importance of this community to us, please expect an update on this about every few weeks as we make progress toward launch. Thank you for your patience and continued support!

During the company’s I/O keynote today, Google announced a new and powerful accessory design kit (ADK) that aims to merge the physical and digital worlds. Using the ADK and a hardware interface, developers can allow digital devices to manipulate physical objects. To illustrate this point, Google constructed a two-ton labyrinth right on the show floor. Using the gyroscope on a Motorola XOOM tablet, conference goers were able to try their hand at manipulating a bowling ball through the over-sized maze. Other potential uses for the technology ranges from turning lights and appliances on and off to providing physical alerts for digital events — why have your phone make an audible alert when it could move or manipulate a physical object in your home or office? The possibilities are endless, but this giant board was just too cool to not share. Hit the jump to watch a video of the big boy in action.

Microsoft is aiming to assuage the pains of mobile application developers looking to migrate their iOS applications from Apple’s mobile operating system to Windows Phone. “Launched today, the iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool helps developers find their way around when they discover the Windows Phone platform,” writes Microsoft in a blog post. “Think of the API mapping tool as being like a translation dictionary.” The tool will allow iOS developers to easily find the equivalent API calls, classes, methods, and notification events  in C#, as well as download working bits of sample code. “Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces,” the post continues. “For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance.” Microsoft’s tool can be found here.

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LG’s about to get its MeeGo on. Next month, the Korean phone manufacturer is set to debut a prototype device during the MeeGo Conference in San Francisco from May 23rd to May 25th. Details leaked by MeeGo Experts have revealed that LG has a special session up its sleeves during which it plans to show off “multiple” LG branded devices running the OS created by Intel and Nokia. LG will also discuss its future plans for the platform, including its developments for MeeGo powered tablets, smartphones, and in-car entertainment systems. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this leak pan out, given that Nokia has decided to focus its efforts on Windows Phone devices, and that LG, ZTE, and China Mobile have all recently decided to work towards creating MeeGo smartphones.

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“It is our intention to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across our portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, where carriers and operators will allow it.” Those were the words of Motorola in response to a very persistent customer. Irwin Proud, an Australian national, purchased a Motorola Atrix 4G during a recent trip to the United States. Proud acquired the handset hoping that Motorola would follow through on its promise to provide an unlocked-bootloader solution for developers — a promise that has yet to be fulfilled. One letter, a handful of emails, and an online petition later, the company responded to Proud’s request for more developer-friendly boot firmware, and it seems as though some users — pending carrier approval — may be getting their wish later this year. Hit the jump to see Motorola’s full response.

In terms of your question – we completely understand the operator requirement for security to the end user, and as well, want to support the developer communities desire to use these products as a development platform.  It is our intention to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across our portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, where carriers and operators will allow it.

[Via Engadget]

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In a recent blog post, Nokia reaffirmed its commitment to the Windows Phone ecosystem by offering us a glimpse at what is to come. The company’s CEO, Stephen Elop, has noted that Nokia has “shifted from a mode of developing” its strategy to one of “putting that strategy into action.” Part of the Finnish phone giants plans involve bringing some of Nokia’s strengths to all members of the Windows Phone family, and one of the most exciting Symbian ports will definitely be Ovi Maps. “Nokia will supply mapping and location-based services for the Windows Phone ecosystem, building on the success it’s experienced with Ovi Maps,” reads the blog post. The company also notes that a “Nokia-branded  application store” will be present on the company’s Windows Phone hardware. The CEO also went on to say that Nokia is hard at work in the hardware department, and quipped that his company would “define some of the future disruptions in our market.”

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No one likes letting a perfectly good operating system go to waste. Reuters is reporting that just as Nokia begins to divest in the MeeGo operating system, other companies are starting to dig in. The publication writes that electronics giant LG has joined the likes of ZTE and China Mobile in a “working group” that aims to develop a MeeGo-based smartphone. “It [Nokia's absence] is opening opportunities for the others to come in,” said a member of MeeGo’s steering committee. “Discussions are taking place. You’ll see things coming out this year, pretty soon.” The fate of the open-source operating system has been in question since Nokia announced it would focus the lion’s share of its development dollars and efforts on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. It is, however, nice to see that an OS with such great potential will not be put out to pasture just yet.

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Over the weekend, Bloomberg filed a very brief report stating that electronics manufacturer Sony will soon test the Android-tablet waters. Citing statements made by the company’s CEO to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the publication writes: “Sony Corp. plans to release a tablet computer by the end of summer [...] the tablet will run Google Inc.’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb software, and will be sold in the U.S. market first.” The company, through its partnership with Ericsson, has plenty of experience with Android handsets. Whether or not Sony can break into the highly-competitive U.S. tablet market will be the $1 million question.

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Nokia CEO Stephen Elop confirmed to Reuters that his company has started developing its first Windows Phone handset. “We’re right now, today, having people work on the first Windows Phone devices,” said the CEO. Nokia announced that it would adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile operating system on future smartphones during a February press event. The timeline of when the Finnish company will release its first Windows-based handset has been a debated topic amongst many industry analysts and pundits. While it is widely assumed that consumers will have to wait until at least 2012 to purchase such a device, Elop has publicly stated that he wants a Nokia-branded smartphone running Microsoft’s OS in market before the close of 2011. The terms of the deal are expected to be finalized within the next few months.

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In a recent press release, mobile device giant Nokia announced a tentative, signed agreement that will jettison the commercial licensing rights of the Qt development platform to Digia. “Through the proposed acquisition, around 3500 desktop and embedded customer companies from various industries are targeted to be transferred to Digia,” reads the announcement. “The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of March 2011.” Digia notes that Nokia will continue to “invest in the future development of Qt,” which has been under the LGPL license framework since 2009. The deal will hand control of commercial licensing and service operations over to Digia, who will broaden its global reach by opening offices in both the U.S. and Norway. The full release is after the break.

Digia to acquire Qt commercial licensing business from Nokia

Digia to support broader use of Qt in consumer electronics, industry machines, and other embedded and desktop software solutions.

Helsinki, Finland 7.3.2011. Digia Plc. (DIG1V) has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire the Qt commercial licensing and services business. Through the proposed acquisition, around 3500 desktop and embedded customer companies from various industries are targeted to be transferred to Digia. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of March 2011. Nokia will continue to invest in future development of Qt for the benefit of all users, both Commercial and LGPL.

As a result, the commercial licensing and service operations business is to be run by Digia, with existing and new commercial customers, who will benefit from the continuity of development of desktop and embedded Qt functionality and new service models. Building on Digia’s leading Qt expertise, this acquisition further accelerates Digia’s direction towards international, product based business and significantly widens Digia’s Qt customer base. To further strengthen its global presence, Digia will establish subsidiaries in USA and Norway as part of the transaction.

Global growth with Qt Commercial (Qt commercial licensing and services)

The use of Qt as an application and UI framework has been growing since Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech in 2008. Qt is actively used by around 3500 desktop and embedded customer companies which will be transferred to Digia upon closing. The commercial customers represent a broad range of industries, e.g. consumer electronics, finance, aviation, energy, defence and media. Qt usage has increased the need for solid commercial support and services executed with strong focus. Digia’s additional investment in Qt Commercial licensing and services business on top of Nokia’s significant Qt development work creates a solid foundation and additional boost for creating business solutions with Qt, and opportunity for customers to benefit from Digia services.

“Qt continues to be an important technology for Nokia and it is critical that Qt’s growth and success can continue. While Nokia will continue to invest in developing Qt as a cross-platform framework for mobile, desktop and embedded segments, focusing on open source development and expansion, we wanted a partner who can drive the commercial licensing and services business around Qt. Digia has proven, in-depth Qt expertise, operational excellence and a keen interest in growing and improving the overall Qt community and so well positioned to expand the Qt Commercial licensing and services business,” says Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Head of MeeGo, Qt and Webkit at Nokia.

“We are excited to extend our Qt business to serve our new customers. Building on our in-depth Qt expertise and experience from demanding mission critical solutions, we will offer world-class commercial licensing and support services to Qt Commercial customers. We also look forward to driving further the evolution of Qt by bringing in new features and services,” says Harri Paani, Senior Vice President from Digia.

Use of Qt in mission critical solutions reinforced – with proven experience

Digia has an ideal background for growing the Qt commercial licensing business and meeting the needs of current Qt commercial customers. Digia’s unique position for Qt commercial business stems from the combination of long track-record in Qt projects since early 2000, creating and operating mission critical business solutions for several industries and commercial software licensing business models. In addition to avoiding open source license restrictions, many customers prefer a commercial relationship that provides professional, responsive support and services ensuring success in their mission critical business solutions.

Digia is a recognized Qt innovator

Digia is dedicated to continuing and growing the Qt commercial relationships and to contributing innovation to the overall Qt community. Digia has stood out in the market as a profitable growth company and recognized Qt innovator, bringing to life the latest Qt technologies in the forefront of the market. With hundreds of Qt experts, Digia is a leading provider of Qt solutions and services.

In addition to acquiring the business responsibility over Qt Commercial licensing and services, Digia also plans to employ 19 persons from Nokia’s technical consulting services team and global Qt Commercial sales and marketing teams. That is targeted to ensuring that the customers will continue to deal with the people they already know.

Digia will invest in the development of Qt as a commercial framework. In particular the plan is to emphasize Qt in the desktop and embedded environments and to examine new support models and functionality requests. Digia will provide commercial customers with improvements in support and functionality for older platforms that were not on the Nokia development roadmap. The holders of a Qt commercial license will be informed about the details separately.

This acquisition will further accelerate Digia’s direction towards international, product based business and significantly widens the customer base for Digia’s Qt business. It also provides Digia’s Enterprise Solution business a world-class offering that has strong synergy with Digia’s Mobile Solution business and expertise.

Motorola definitely hasn’t won over the hearts and minds of the most hardcore Android tinkerers — thanks in large part to the company’s locked-down hardware and software. But Moto is showing signs of life. In a recent tweet, Motorola quipped that:

The XOOM will have an unlockable/relockable bootloader that will enable developers to access hardware for development

Not a bad starting point, and certainly a great way to get developers excited about the world’s first Android 3.0 tablet. Now… who do we talk to about custom ROMs?

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At at joint press conference today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop provided specific details about what the newly forged partnership between their two companies will look like. Fans of Nokia hardware and the Windows Phone software can get excited about the prospects of Xbox Live, Office, and enhanced maps (a combination of Ovi Maps and Bing) coming to Nokia WP sets. Fans of Windows Phone in general can get excited about the world’s largest phone manufacturer throwing its weight behind the recently launched mobile OS. But how do Nokia’s developers, the ones who have committed time and resources to Qt, make out in this deal? The future looks bleak.

In a letter to developers, the companies noted that Qt would still be supported for Symbian and MeeGo — Nokia expects to ship 150 million Symbian phones during the transition; there was also mention of the first MeeGo device shipping later this year. The letter was quite clear in saying that Microsoft would “provide tools for application developers,” not Nokia. Translation: No Qt. This transition from Symbian to Windows Phone is going to be an interesting tightrope for Nokia to walk — especially in regards to developers. The aforementioned letter is waiting for you after the break. Have a look and let us know what you think in the comments.

Letter to Developers about Today’s News
11 February, 2011 10:05

Nokia and Microsoft today announced plans to form a broad strategic partnership that would combine our complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem, one we believe would have all the elements needed to fuel innovation – including search, location, advertising and exciting new devices.

As part of this, Nokia plans to adopt Windows Phone as our primary smartphone strategy, helping drive the future of the platform. This has not been a decision taken lightly by Nokia and we wanted to share some of the key points with our developer community.

Nokia and Microsoft together
The Nokia-Microsoft ecosystem would aim to deliver differentiated and innovative products and have unrivalled scale, product breadth, geographical reach, and brand identity. With Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform, we would help drive the future of the platform by leveraging our expertise in hardware optimization, software customization, language support and scale.

Microsoft would make available the existing free Windows Phone Developer Tools; Visual Studio 2010, Expression, Silverlight and the XNA Framework to developers. Together, we will provide guidance for developers wishing to port their applications to Windows Phone.

Nokia and Microsoft would also combine services assets to drive innovation. Nokia’s Ovi Maps, for example, would be at the heart of key Microsoft assets like Bing and AdCenter, and Nokia’s application and content store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for Nokia Windows Phones, to deliver a great single commerce experience for developers and consumers alike.

The Qt ecosystem
Qt will continue to be the development framework for Symbian and Nokia will use Symbian for further devices; continuing to develop strategic applications in Qt for Symbian platform and encouraging application developers to do the same. With 200 million users worldwide and Nokia planning to sell around 150 million more Symbian devices, Symbian still offers unparalleled geographical scale for developers.

Extending the scope of Qt further will be our first MeeGo-related open source device, which we plan to ship later this year. Though our plans for MeeGo have been adapted in light of our planned partnership with Microsoft, that device will be compatible with applications developed within the Qt framework and so give Qt developers a further device to target.

Nokia Mobile Phones
Nokia Mobile Phones will drive Nokia’s “web for the next billion” strategy, leveraging Nokia’s innovation and strength in growth markets to connect the next billion people and bring them affordable access to the Internet and applications. This represents a further opportunity for developers. Nokia will leverage our proxy browser technology on mobile phones, as well as continuing to enhance Java support and SDKs, with developers and publishers able to deliver their applications to consumers through the Nokia store.

Supporting our developers
As part of the change in Nokia’s organization announced today, the Services and Developer Experiences (SDX) unit will be responsible for Nokia’s global service portfolio, developer offering, developer community relations, and integration of partner service offering. Forum Nokia will be part of that unit and will continue to support developers for Symbian smartphones and Series 40 mobile phones.

We will strengthen our ability to support developers both globally and in local markets, ensuring that we can work with you wherever you are to bring your latest applications to our store and help you leverage the global revenue opportunity with Symbian and Series 40.

For Nokia Windows Phones, Microsoft would provide tools for application developers to easily and rapidly leverage Nokia’s market reach. The integration of Microsoft Marketplace and Nokia’s content and application store would provide scalable infrastructure and compelling consumer engagement for applications for Nokia Windows Phones.

The combined stores would offer unparalleled distribution. The Ovi Store already delivers content in 190 countries, with local specific content in 90 of those. We are now seeing 4 million downloads a day, with 300,000 users signing up daily and 400,000 developers now working on applications for Nokia on Symbian. In addition to offering operator billing with 103 operators in 32 countries, we plan to support the widest range of business models for our publishers and developers.

We plan to make it easy and profitable for all developers to thrive in the ecosystem, taking advantage of the enablers (API’s) offered by ourselves, Microsoft and other partners – including location, search, monetization and advertising.

What’s next?
As we said, this announcement is about our plans to work with Microsoft and the planning will continue. Our aim is to keep you informed as plans develop, through our Forum Nokia and Ovi Publish websites, newsletters and in person. In the meantime, we want to help you maximize the existing business opportunity, developing for the approximately 50 million Qt capable Symbian smartphones already in use and approximately 150 million more that we target to sell, as well as hundreds of millions of Nokia mobile phones.

We think this is going to be an exciting journey and look forward to having you with us!

Purnima Kochikar
Head of Forum Nokia & Developer Community

In an effort to thwart unauthorized efforts to unlock or jailbreak devices running Windows Phone 7, Microsoft took a rather unorthodox approach. Rather than sending idle threats or immediately entering into the endless loop of plugging security holes and watching new ones emerge, the company extended an olive branch to the developers behind ChevronWP7. Microsoft’s Brandon Watson reached out to the ChevronWP7 team, which recently released a Windows Phone 7 unlocking tool, and opened a line of discussion about homebrew app development. As a sign of good faith during the conversations, which could ultimately lead to some kind of homebrew support from Microsoft, ChevronWP7 has agreed to pull its unlocker tool. It seems odd that Microsoft would consider helping developers build apps with capabilities not allowed under Microsoft’s developer terms. Then again, the homebrew community will emerge and grow either way. By working with homebrew developers instead of against them, perhaps Microsoft can maintain some level of control.

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