LONDON—The Symbian Foundation
launched Symbian Horizon, the publishing program for Symbian developers, at the
Symbian Exchange and Exposition 2009 here.
According to Symbian officials, developers can now sign up for the program
to have their applications listed in the Symbian Horizon Directory, processed
through Symbian Signed, and published to a growing list of application store
partners. The goal of Symbian Horizon is to help developers bring their
applications to the largest mobile market in the world in a cost-effective way.
This publishing program is now being scaled up to process thousands of
applications in 2010.
Shaun Puckrin, head of developer services at the Symbian Foundation, said
the foundation created Horizon in response to developer concerns that there are
too many challenges and costs associated with developing and publishing a
Symbian application to the global market of potential customers. In addition to
reducing these costs, Symbian hopes to improve developers’ access to global
markets through translation and localization assistance.
Since the initial launch plans were announced in July 2009, Symbian has
processed an initial group of 50 applications and is helping these developers
sign and submit their products to mobile application stores worldwide. A total
of five stores now support Symbian Horizon. Along with the initial stores
announced—Ovi Store by Nokia, Samsung Applications Store and AT&T’s MEdia
Mall—two new stores are now participating: China Mobile’s Mobile Market and
Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow.
“We recognize that developers face many challenges in bringing their
products to market on Symbian devices,” said Lee Williams, executive director
of the Symbian Foundation, in a statement. “In particular, the diversity of
application stores in our ecosystem increases the burden on developers by
requiring multiple submission and review processes. But this diversity can also
offer an advantage over competitors’ closed systems, where applications sometimes
receive arbitrary or commercially motivated rejections. Symbian Horizon retains
this advantage while reducing the burden by becoming a conduit to multiple
stores, helping developers reach the largest global mobile market in the world
more efficiently.”
There are three ways developers will be able to participate in the
publishing program, Williams said. Available today, all developers can have
their Symbian Signed applications appear in the Symbian Horizon Directory free
of charge. The goal of the directory is to provide a complete guide to every
Symbian Signed application, as well as where they can be downloaded or
purchased, Puckrin said. The directory is live in beta, showcasing an initial
group of applications and allowing developers to submit other applications that
have already been signed, he said.
Second, over the next few months the Symbian Signed process will be revised,
providing developers with the option of automatically adding an application to
the Symbian Horizon Directory, Symbian officials said. Developers will be able
to register online and edit their application and developer profiles, providing
both stores and consumers with complete information about their products.
And, lastly, the Symbian Horizon publisher program will begin to increase
the number of applications processed through Symbian Signed and submitted to
application store partners over the next few months, the organization said.
In addition to the first group of 50 applications, another 50 applications
will be processed through the review and signing process and submitted to all
participating stores at no cost to the developer, Symbian said. A comprehensive
program designed to process thousands of applications will be launched in 2010,
Symbian officials said.
Application Development News & Reviews 
