Scanning The Horizon

Building anything worthwhile is never easy; building something good is extremely difficult. Mobile apps are especially tricky. Working with device, platform and operator variations compound the challenge of making something useful and useable. Once the app is built developers still need to take it to market. To do that the app needs to pass security and QA tests, and the developer has to configure meta-data and set pricing. Then the app is published to each individual App Store, one store a at time. What a hassle.

The core idea behind Symbian Horizon (http://www.symbian.org/horizon) is making the business and distribution of Symbian apps easier. Horizon is a publisher program similar to a book publisher or record label. Developers can submit their app or even an idea for an app that they will build. Symbian will select the best apps and help take them to market. We will sign the app, publish it to the App Stores and manage the transactions, all at no cost to the developers. It is a ‘code once, publish to many’ syndication service.

Symbian is looking for apps that cover a wide range of needs. Free or paid apps are welcome, apps that take advantage of mobile features like GPS and web integration are especially interesting, as are the standard categories like games and utilities. We are primarily interested in apps that use the Symbian^1 platform but any recent platform will also get high consideration.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one. We want great apps, the stores want great apps, mobile users want great apps too. Devices are increasingly judged by the enhancements that they support. We see Horizon as the best way to help developers, enhance the value of Symbian and the value of the entire mobile market.

Today, most of the processes behind this program require manual tasks. Our goal for the near future is to develop a system that will automate this work allowing us to scale the program to include as many apps as possible. We want every Symbian app to be available online and on devices, through as many of the App Stores as possible.

If you are an established developer or thinking of coding your first mobile app, we want to hear from you. Please submit your app or idea here: http://www.symbian.org/horizon

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