Nokia pins its hopes on QT

At a mobile Monday meeting in Tel Aviv, Nokia reps did their best to persuade folks that iPhone and Blackberry were not the be all and end all of the smartphone world, and the firm’s new QT platform would persuade developers into developing a plethora of apps for Symbian and Meego.
“QT is cross platform and very easy for developers to use, it’s also open,” a Nokia rep told RCR. “We’ve also offered it as a development tool for other platforms, but it remains doubtful whether companies like Apple will allow it,” he added in what we can only assume was a massive understatement.
The QT SDK has become Nokia’s preferred development platform, and will apparently also become the main Symbian platform once Symbian 4 eventually emerges – if its predecessor, Symbian 3, eventually decides to see the light of day.
The QT SDK apparently also includes anything a developer could want or need, from the most up to date APIs for messaging to location based data. It also comes in both Windows and Linux flavours for desktops.
“Why would people need 50 apps for Facebook, or for Twitter, when you could just have one that’s easy to find and use?” Asked the Nokia rep, when RCR put it to him that Nokia was fighting a losing battle in terms of sheer app numbers compared with its rivals.
“Also, most of the apps on the Ovi store are free,” he maintained.
Nokia also believes its QT SDK will win over developers with its imulator feature, which allows them to see how their app will look across various platforms.
Perhaps in Israel, where Nokia phones seem to be the devices of choice, QT will indeed become a useful tool, but whether or not Nokia can convince US developers of the same thing is still very much in doubt.