Poll: What do you think about hosting non-Nokia trials in Nokia Beta Labs?
Tue, 2011-01-04 11:00If you're a Nokia Beta Labs regular, you've noticed that during December we invited three non-Nokia developers to bring beta versions of their apps to Nokia Beta Labs: Soundtrckr, Pixelpipe Share Online, and Mobile Documents by Visiarc. On top of those we've also had beta releases of Swype for Symbian hosted here, and we hope to have a few more similar cases too.
Our intention with these new additions to the Nokia Beta Labs catalog is to pilot the idea of expanding Nokia Beta Labs to include beta trials from non-Nokia developers. We believe this could create a win-win situation for everyone participating here. You in the community would get more cool stuff to try out (something you've asked for) and have the chance to interact with the developers. And the developers would have access to an already active and enthusiastic community interested in giving input to development on Nokia platforms.
But, in the beta spirit, we wanted to test out this assumption with real cases and learn how best to take this further.
So please help us out by giving some quick feedback about this idea in the following poll and then tell us why in the comments below.
Comments
I think this is a great idea. As a developer I would love to have dialogue with early adopters and enthusiasts and hear what they have to say.
I think it's nice to have not only Nokia developers. The more participate the more betas are there to try! And that makes it more interesting for new Nokia phone users to participate.....
Superb progress in my opinion, and a welcomed addition here if I may say so myself. Having been apart of several other Beta tests of various developers applications, including Pixelpipe, it great to see Brett getting his app, and great service some exposure here too.
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I think this is a great idea. you know! TNX NOKiA
This is great, all applications that improve the use of phone are welcome
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Err.. why don't you guys focus on getting bug free versions of your own products out of this site and into general availability first?
- Instead you are wasting resources that would be better used fixing the many manifest defects in your products on... hosting defect ridden version of other peoples products too!.
- Why are you still pushing betas.. is it because you lack the quality oriented competence that Nokia had back in the old days when you were a credible phone company instead of a joke playing catch-up.
I think it's a good idea that external developers can test their apps with Nokia community, to ensure the best user experience.
But, since they are external teams, Nokia team should focus on their own apps, there are a lot of betas which have been abandoned while they were good and nearly finished (an example: Photo Browser).
It would be better to finish an existing project in a reasonable time and then start another one, while external teams can go on without that fragmentation.
So it's ok to invite other developers and make them refine their apps here, but don't forget your own projects!
I have to echo much of the sentiment of the last 2 comments. I welcome external betas, but only so as it does not slow down your own internal development and progress of Nokia beta projects.
Also, where are the QT based apps that we should be seeing by now?
@6,7,8: Do you honestly think the same exact people who make the promo material (videos, interviews, etc) churn out lines of code to make new features and fix bugs? Resources allocated to feature 3rd party apps are away only from promoting Nokia's own projects (which I'd assume to get priority when needed).
More help for developers means more people developing for Nokia - means more people interested in the platform - meaning more people developing for Nokia.
Developers win because their product gets tested and spread easily.
Consumers win because they have more products to choose from
Nokia wins because its platform gets more popular.
Everyone wins.
It good hosting non Nokia apps here as far as they are cross checked by nokia for security and compatibility
-Harshil Sharma
I am absolutely in favor of seeing external apps on Betalabs. My startup is developing www.fambit.com , private social web&mobile service for the family segment. It would be great to get feedback from the Betalabs community for the further development.
A win win situation for both devs & users!! Hope to see more interesting 3rd parties app as this will make easier for devs to launch a nice finished product in Ovi store. These helps can be very useful for startups.
spanishgringo said: I welcome external betas, but only so as it does not slow down your own internal development and progress of Nokia beta projects.
External apps seems a good idea as long as there are only a few of them. I too am afraid, that they could flood betalabs and distract the activity from Nokias own development. I am in favour of the proposal if and only if the number of external apps can be restricted to (say) 5 at most.
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For sure its a great idea , this not just provides the developers an opportunity to get an early feedback but also puts the further product/app development on the right track .the customer needs and expectations are gathered and worked upon .By all means its a welcome move I appreciate Nokia for this and hope this participation and collaboration grows in order to help Nokia re-attain the pinnacle.
Fantastic idea. A great resource for developers to take hold of, and some fun for people who like participating in beta-labs
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In part I think is good idea, but it is interesting to Nokia care and who is invited for us users to test their program.
It is important to Nokia clearly signal who is the software (especially if Nokia's own), not leaving us at the mercy of unscrupulous developers.
Have contact with the developer to improve the software is very valid, but need to do the same enhancements and participate in these discuções their software, otherwise it is more worthwhile to create a sub forum for such applications (non-Nokia).
I am a user and beta tester, not a developer, I'm afraid the quality of applications that might arise, I had a bad experience recently with a software (Dukto) that installed on my N8 forced me to reset it.
This in OVI Store as compatible with N8, however, I believe that neither has been tested with this hardware.
I used this example to show what happened to me is that with this type of application that I'm afraid to face me.
It is a very important quality control over what we will be offered for testing.
Yes, test means it is still under development, but even being tested by the developer before it publicly available is unwise.
while on it, you should make easier for users for users to report crashes. It is almost a 8 step process to have something that will report a single error code and it has to be self signed.
We are also tired of pressing *0000#. You have something that will report all device info as xml remember?
tricky part about crash reporter is, it has to have a very powerful signature and I believe Nokia is the only company who has that power.
Make a developer pluggable crash and basic configuration reporter and allow developers to attach to it. Nothing fancy or cryptic, just a plain mail with plain text (or txt.gz) attachment.
@elpuri,
No, I do not assume that they are committing developers to the 3rd party projects, but I bet they are using Nokia resources for topic moderation, reviewing of discussions, and providing some limited support to those third parties. In a limited number of external betas, the impact should not be that noticeable.
As I said in my earlier comment, I welcome it so long as it does not slow them down in any way from developing and advancing their own internal Nokia projects. For me, Swipe has been one of the best beta programs ever for Nokia, so I see the value or 3rd party betas here.
Sadly, due to the lack of progress and communication on previous projects (eg, Photo Browser, Java Platform Beta) the appearance, however, is that this is mostly another distraction for the Nokia team.
Good idea but to keep in mind that when you put somthing here you are vouching for it and while that doesn't mean it needs to be complete it does need to mean that you have tested it and it basically works as well as really being somthing interesting case in point is mobile docs which I downloaded after seeing it here but it won't sign me in a few more of these and I won't be looking at labs anymore
It is really a welcome step. Since Nokia cannot come up with new products/services every now and then, better to allow third party app developers to release their beta apps here.
If the 3rd party developers give a free version in the beta form will they charge money when they release the product?
For e.g. swype , did nokia sponsor it to be free version?
mitun chidamparam
I'm all for it!
This could work three ways:
- Make Nokia users happy, as more app become available
- Make Nokia happy because happy users will share positive experiences
- Make App developers happy as they can introduce their app at an early stage, and get the word out...(and get working releases)
See the circle developing?
Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts on this question. Really great comments and questions so far, many of which are ones that we've been discussing here too.
I'll try to address a few of the open questions or concerns:
- Nokia Beta Labs facilitates trials and doesn't do any product development (that happens elsewhere in the company), so hosting beta trials of non-Nokia developers doesn't take anything away from the development of Nokia beta projects.
- We've chosen to host only a handful of non-Nokia apps for now. That will help ensure that you aren't overwhelmed and that we can comfortably learn about this concept before taking any further steps.
- We've started with developers that have something cool and free, are actively developing their app, are committed to the feedback dialogue, and who would benefit from this kind of opportunity.
- To help clarify who's working on what, non-Nokia apps are marked in several places with the developer name, and non-Nokia developer responses are marked accordingly too. Is something more needed?
- We'll check back with each case after a few months to see if it makes sense to continue to trial or not (based on criteria above).
All in all, though, this looks like a promising concept. Thanks again!
John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs
It expands the experience we have as early adopters, and also it allows us to use our devices in new ways. As early adopters we are prone to get bored quickly, so we need constant input.
This idea gives us the opportunity to use new things with a little bit less risk than checking software directly from "the dark side", that oftens crashes the phone big time (previous version of jbak taskman frozen my n97 on the Nokia screen at boot time).
Swype is a good idea, also mobile documents, that completely competes with Nokia Messaging email, so it tells us you are embracing variety, instead of trying to reach a service monopoly.
So keep it up and pumping. Throw more and more apps to us. We will tell you what is great and what is not.
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Vitaliano G.
I am all for having non-nokia apps on betalabs ! but just as John promised there should not be too many of them.
Best Regards,
Suyog
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Yea it's an awesome idea ..... Pixelpipe and symbian is my fav apps on Beta labs :)
It's a great idea as long as some sort of feedback is given back here. If not it will just become a source of annoyance and disinterest in in the beta labs site.
@andrewemblow, by "some sort of feedback" do you mean responses from the developers to your feedback? If so, this is something that we're ensuring they all agree to before starting a trial here and that we're helping them with through regular notifications and reports.
John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs
As long as the community thrives, everyone wins. Letting developers have an insight into the needs in reatiem is good for all - helps match the wants (or documented specifications) to the real needs. This step is critical to surive for Nokia, people buy hardware for what they can do with it and not the other way round. The iphone & android phones will capture the market if the app development for Nokia isnt up to speed.
There should however be enough checks and balances to ensure there is no abuse - the community members know and trust Nokia and not these developers. Nokia should do the due diligence of the external parties to ensure that ther are no security / malpractice issues. E.g. an app like mobile documents is a great risk, as you could be compromising on your identity. The community assumes that Nokia has done its due diligence to ensure the developer/provider is safe & ethical.
Perhaps 3rd party developers can teach first party about the importance of being responsive and positive to user feedback.
It is absolutely the only way to go, and get developers back to the symbian 3 / QT side of things.
Provide them a forum with some really dedicated and seasoned testers, and things get done
to everybodies satisfaction.
perfect example is moodagent, a brilliant peace of software - with active developmet
which profits from serious users who are willing to betatest contiously, voluntarily and constructively.
"The betatest on the market" - by just throwing half hearted apps to ovi, that then fail
on many device due to lack of QA and pure carelessness could be a thing of the past
if betalabs would be used by a more of those DEVs.