Though he was not slated to attend, Nokia's newly named CEO Stephen Elop makes an appearance at Nokia World 2010 and shows he learned something at Microsoft: Developers matter a lot.
LONDON-Taking
a page from his former chief executive's playbook, newly minted Nokia CEO
Stephen Elop closed out the
Nokia World 2010
conference here by chanting "Developers, developers, developers!"
Elop,
who is still listed as president of Microsoft's Business Division, is not
slated to take the reins of Nokia until Sept. 21 (with his last day at Microsoft
said to be Sept. 20), but he could not resist the temptation of appearing at
the annual conference for Nokia users, partners, developers and friends. This
year, Nokia held its Nokia Developer Summit in conjunction with the Nokia World
event, and Elop made an appearance at the closing of the developer summit,
where he awarded a million-dollar prize to a Kenyan developer during the
Calling All Innovators and Venture Challenge Award segment that marks the end
of the conference.
"I
can't help but be proud that my first act as CEO-elect
of Nokia is to give you a million dollars," Elop said as he gave the award
to Virtual City, a Kilimani, Kenya, company that focuses on supporting small
and micro enterprises in emerging markets with solutions for mobile phones.
Elop's
former boss, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft,
is famous for bellowing, "Developers, developers, developers!" to a
crowd of developers to convey the importance of the developer base to Microsoft's
success. Years later at a
Microsoft
MIX conference, Ballmer modified the statement to include "Web
developers, Web developers, Web developers!"
For
his part, Elop entered the Nokia World venue to enthusiasm and applause from
the crowd. And developers were clearly his point of focus. "Without you we
cannot create the vibrancy and ecosystem we need to be successful and to
compete around the world," he said. And further noting the importance of
developers to Nokia's ecosystem, Elop said he was "impressed by what you
do."
It
is important that Elop recognizes the importance of having a strong developer
base, a lesson Microsoft and Ballmer learned long ago. Elop need only look back
at Microsoft's example of how the software giant built perhaps the strongest
rapport between a company and its developer base in the industry.
Nokia's
chief technology officer, Rich Green, said he intends to continue to empower
Nokia developers with better and more powerful tools. Meanwhile, Purnima
Kochikar, vice president of Forum Nokia, Nokia's developer network-its
homegrown look-alike of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN)-said she plans
to maintain developer involvement by helping them make money on the
applications they create for the Nokia platform, among other things.
Elop's presence served to rejuvenate and align the crowd, even as the
conference was winding down. The Nokia World show was a bustling event, as
Nokia introduced a new family of Symbian smartphones and improved developer
tools. Over the two days, more than 5,000 people-including operators,
developers, business partners and media from around the world-visited Nokia
World 2010.
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