Orbster blogs

What happens with Nokia if Symbian dies…..?

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:37:00 GMT

…Oliver Lauer from Mobinauten.de asked this question in a blog entry (which you find here in german http://www.mobinauten.de/blog/2009/01/05/was-passiert-mit-nokia-wenn-symbian-stirbt/ ). He notes that Symbian is already dying and asked the question what Nokia will do in the future, integrate Android OS? He closed with the statement that he will concentrate on developing for the iPhone and for Android phones.

Apart from the fact that it is much harder to develop for Symbian compared to developing for Android or the iPhone, the biggest problem I see for Nokia and other manufacturers and network operators, that there is no distribution channel for Java or Symbian applications that really works, or at least none a small developer can afford or has the time to wait for.

As a small developer for mobile applications - Orbster is a developer for GPS games with 7 FTE - you have to remain focused.

If it would be sufficient to develop for one or at most for two operating systems to let a business grow, not only Orbster would happily drop the other platforms, many others would as well.

Fishlabs, one of the most accepted developers internationally, will not develop any new Java mobile games for distribution via mobile network operators and Internet portals. You can read the reasons here http://blog.fishlabs.net/en/2009/01/05/the-best-mobile-games-do-not-make-a-profit/ .

Although it seems that there are still some developers who live quite well with the current situation like handygames http://www.pocketgamer.biz/news.asp?c=0439062001&pk=14715212 if you follow the discussions in the mobile developer scene you have to conclude that there is a major paradigm shift going on right now in mobile application development and distribution, away from manufacturers and operators to the iPhone and maybe Android and to the corresponding new distribution channels.

If manufacturers and mobile operators won’t offer much better access to their millions of customers, they will lose a large part of the developer community and with it a lot of money via application sales.

New maps for the iPhone

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:05:00 GMT

Our GPS game “GPS Mission” is available for the iPhone 3G on the App Store. One of the more interesting features is its use of the Open Street Map (OSM). This may be a big advantage for our players in Eastern Europe, South Africa and Australia – where we don’t have a map on our other phone clients. Now the only thing you have to do is buy an iPhone 3G :-(.

Open Street Map on the iPhone

Looking through Walls

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:32:20 GMT

Have you ever wished to be able to look through walls?

LBS 2008 in Salzburg

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:12:00 GMT

Professor Rehrl asked us to be so kind as to show our game GPS Mission at this year's Location Based Services Conference held in Salzburg. How could we deny such an offer?

The Testing goes on

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:34:13 GMT

Just a little impression from the field. The iPhone testing is going on. One of the things I found out these days is that one can´t operate the touchscreen wearing gloves...

Mysterious Phones Found

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:18:39 GMT

Can a phone make you go to certain places? There is rumours of mysterious phones people found lying in the streets in differnet places in Britain and Germany (namely Scunthorpe, Ebbw Vale, Warrington, London, Cologne, Nuremberg, Constance and Hamburg) these days. Returning to the same places over and over it´s said they feel like the found mobile makes them go there. Can this be? And what does it mean?

Beta-phase winner visits the Oktoberfest

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:04:00 GMT

Our player VadimV sprinted up the high-score list in June and July, collecting the amazing amount of over 12,000 pieces of GPS Mission gold. This won him an all expenses paid trip to the Oktoberfest (including beer) together with his wife!

Creating great GPS Missions (remake)

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:44:00 GMT

The golden rules are: keep it short, keep it safe, test your mission & don't ask ambiguous questions. And obviously you should make it interesting and fun!