Why continue with Qt
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[quote author="Franzk" date="1319704790"]Even though Nokia made an agreement with MS that they wouldn't be actively porting Qt to WinPho7, who is stopping (non-Nokian) individuals from making a lighthouse plugin?[/quote]
Well, M$ could do what Apple are doing to prevent people from using free tools and block any such software from their stores / signing process meaning although in theory you could write & run a Qt program on said platform, you would not be able to distribute it. I hope they won't go that way though. I have already given up on Apple devices.
The S40 / "Next Billion" platform is rumored to be a Linux flavor called Meltemi. Some references:
http://androsym.com/symbian/nokia-to-replace-s40-with-linux-based-meltemi-to-connect-the-next-billion/
http://blog.qt.nokia.com/2011/06/21/qt’s-future-for-nokia-bringing-apps-to-the-next-billion/- Matti
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I had seen the Meltemi rumor. But still no concrete information from Nokia. Neither from Qt developer days nor from Nokia world. As I said earlier, the phones introduced for next billion at the Nokia world are S40 6th edition devices. True that unless there is official support from the OS developers (like MS), distribution on respective stores may not be possible. Hope Google won't block necessitas apps once it matures and lot of people start using it. We really needs a Qt mobile platform that Nokia supports. Currently ' Next billion ' = uncertainty.
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Although no operating system was mentioned it was clearliy mentioned that the next billion will be Qt, wasn't it? And as a Qt developer I usually don't care about the underlying operating system.
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Yes, it was. But that does not mean that it will be able to run apps (what would be the difference with the smartphone market then?), let alone if such a market segment would even be an interesting market for app developers. At the devdays keynote, there was mainly a lot of cheer for the N9 and the new symbians, but no mention of how EOL these platforms are with the current* Nokia roadmap. I'm certainly going to play around with my shiney new N9 and try to build some stuff for it, but I would not invest in it from a business point of view. Then again, I am not a business man, so I might just be overlooking the opportunities.
[*] In so far as that is publicly available, of course.
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Well, I guess they are called emerging markets because they are supposed to... emerge ;-)
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[quote author="Lukas Geyer" date="1319715834"]Although no operating system was mentioned it was clearliy mentioned that the next billion will be Qt, wasn't it? And as a Qt developer I usually don't care about the underlying operating system.[/quote]
If I remember right, Qt as core of next billion was announced at Nokia Connection event in June 2011. After that simply no news about it, isn't it ? On the forum nokia home page, under the Qt sdk, two targets are listed, N9 - The beautiful phone which Nokia refuses to sell, Symbian - Killed by Nokia early this year. No next billion. If they have a solid plan for Qt and next billion, is it so difficult to share it with developers ?
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Wasn't it stated on the DevDays a few days ago?
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[quote author="Lukas Geyer" date="1319719605"]Wasn't it stated on the DevDays a few days ago?[/quote]
On google search I got the following link from maemo.org
"http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=79051":http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=79051
Scroll down a bit, in red block letters, the text say something big regarding this is coming.
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Well, I'm using QT as thin layer only, the core still std, boost, and other stuffs that supposed to be platform free.
Native app is certainly not going to be faded away in very near future, especially if you targetting not just that locked platform.
I wish WP7 had native SDK, that would be cool!
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[quote author="ardhitama" date="1319737189"]I wish WP7 had native SDK, that would be cool![/quote]
Actually WP7 has a native SDK and supports native code execution but most of us aren't allowed to publish native applications through the WP7 app store. For instance Adobe got permission to publish Flash as a native application.
Qt might run out of the box on rooted WP7 devices as it is just Windows CE after all - which is supported by Qt.
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Yesterday I saw the advertisement for an Android phone that costs just around Rs 4000 in India, that will be below $100, the price of a dumb S40 Nokia phone in India. I don't think Nokia can effectively compete with Android with the current S40 phones, even with the new ASHA series. Already people here are fast moving to Android for both high end and low end phones. I feel Nokia must really use Maemo for next billion to compete against Android at the low-mid end and I guess that is just what they are going to do.
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The topic is "Why continue with Qt", so bear with me for not commenting on the "how to build better phones" suggestions.
"Why continue with Qt" was to me answered on the devdays in Munich we had this week: Because Qt is a great toolkit with a vibrant, strong and growing community! It really were the best devdays I ever participated in: Lots of interesting people commited to Qt -- inside and outside of Nokia.
Open Governance is really taking off, too. I have merged more contributions into Qt Creator since it opened last Friday than in the whole of September (and I did not even bother to check codereview during the time I was in Munich!). We trolls are not slacking of either. Just go and check "codereview.qt-project.org":https://codereview.qt-project.org/#q,status:merged,n,z and see for yourself.
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Bravo @ Tobias!
And never forget: Qt always was and will ever be more than a mobile toolkit. Yes, there are still some desktop developers out there ;-)
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[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1319826325"]The topic is "Why continue with Qt", so bear with me for not commenting on the "how to build better phones" suggestions.
"Why continue with Qt" was to me answered on the devdays in Munich we had this week: Because Qt is a great toolkit with a vibrant, strong and growing community! It really were the best devdays I ever participated in: Lots of interesting people commited to Qt -- inside and outside of Nokia.
Open Governance is really taking off, too. I have merged more contributions into Qt Creator since it opened last Friday than in the whole of September (and I did not even bother to check codereview during the time I was in Munich!). We trolls are not slacking of either. Just go and check "codereview.qt-project.org":https://codereview.qt-project.org/#q,status:merged,n,z and see for yourself.[/quote]
Regarding the Android and S40 comment, yes that seems off topic. I'am not making any suggestions on how to make better phones. I'am sorry if I sounded that way and I also feel I should have titled the post as ' Why continue with Qt on Mobile '. Maemo is a Qt supported platform and if it is chosen as the platform for next billion, it will be good for Qt mobile developers. Thats just my thought. I know Qt has great future on desktop and embedded world. I myself do all my hobby desktop development on Qt. But being a mobile developer, I'am a bit concerned. But as announced, at Qt dev days, I hope something good is coming to mobile space. Anyway I love Qt and will continue to be a Qt developer. I do have lot of experience in c++ and apart from mobile I have interest in opengl and embedded space. So Qt is a natural choice for me.
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To many post here to see if anyone has mentioned this but a problem may exist with making an official Qt port for Android due to Google who pays for a Qt licence. Pretty sure they use it for their web apps only, so I don't know how that would effect its integration. Guess it would be up to Google and if they want to because of this.
To the Blackberry comment. They aren't dead just in restructure. Their BB10 is definitely going to be a force when released. But the real power is still in QNX support (which isn't going away anytime soon). Just think of newer trends that are taking off like car apps or the medical field, this is what you can harness from Qt. Qt5 even more cross platform capability.