Posts Tagged ‘interview’

Rebecca Williams, GoSpoken: “Ease of use most important factor for mobile application success”

By Erik Starck | Published: August 26th, 2009

gospoken_logo

Our application store has been open for application submission since July and the first applications have been available on PlayNow™ arena for a couple of weeks.

One of the first applications that went through our submission process was an ebook reader from GoSpoken. I asked Rebecca Williams at GoSpoken a few questions about their experiences as a mobile application development company and about selling their Michael Jackson ebook on the Sony Ericsson application shop, PlayNow™ arena.

Developer World: Tell us a little about your company and the application you submitted?

Rebecca Williams: The idea of GoSpoken is to read or listen to your favourite books whenever and where ever you are; simply books on the go. We launched GoSpoken last April (08) at the London Book Fair with 8 audio books on our mobile site. Since then we have grown to a catalogue of over 6,000 ebooks and audio books (25,000 by the end of the year) for download direct to mobile including bestselling authors such as Stephen King, James Patterson and Sophie Kinsella. Bestselling author and ex SAS operative Andy McNab is an enthusiastic business partner and last year Lord Ashcroft’s investment companies invested in GoSpoken to allow us to expand into new territories.

The app we have live on Fun & downloads and PlayNow™ arena is our ebook reader which downloads onto any JAVA-enabled handset. Each book comes with its own reader which means you don’t need to download the ereader and then the content. It comes all at once so you have quick and easy access to your content.

DW: What was your biggest challenges when developing the app? Any advice to other developers who’s thinking about selling an application?

RW: The biggest challenge was to create an ebook reader which serves many handsets whilst being easy to use. We speak to our customers as much as possible to understand how we can improve it and we are constantly developing it from their feedback. I personally love the night mode (white text on black background) which means I can read in bed at night without waking my husband! My advice to other developers is; whatever the application it must be easy to use or you will turn customers off very quickly.

DW: What can be improved from our part when it comes to selling and developing the application? Any feedback to Sony Ericsson?

RW: We have a great relationship with Sony Ericsson and the process of going live on your platform has been quick and painless. We are already talking about how we can best promote books to your customers, particularly on your large screen handsets which are ideal for reading books, and offer our full catalogue rather than selected titles; so watch this space!

It would be great to have access to real time reporting and be able to pre-load new handsets with free books or exclusive content.

Thanks, Rebecca, and good luck with your application!

Erik Starck
Community Manager, Developer World

Posted in Community | Tagged , , , , | No Comments

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Richard Spence, Bluetrail, about The Future of Java ME

By Erik Starck | Published: August 21st, 2009

This blog is about the community around Sony Ericsson development. This time we’re meeting Richard Spence (user bluetrail in the forums) to talk about the future of Java ME.

Developer World: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company. What do you do? Who’s your customers?

Richard Spence: My company is called Bluetrail and we have been developing mobile applications since 2001. Along the way we have had a go at Windows mobile, Java Me and Android.

I get my hands dirty with most things from sales to design, coding and emptying the ashtrays ;-)

We have created a number of mobile systems for Red Bull and some other clients I am not a liberty to mention because of NDAs

Over the last 2 years we have focused our efforts on creating a data capture product for mobile phones called Swift. This is sold in the UK and Europe by our partner company Matador Intelligence. More information and idea of what clients are using it can be found here.

DW: What’s your view on the Java ME market? What strengths and weaknesses does the platform have? What’s your view on the future of Java ME?

RS: The strength of the platform are the installed base – this represents a huge opportunity.

The weaknesses are legion. Fragmentation, signing, where the apps get installed on the device, differences between operators …. it goes on and on.

The tech community can get too obsessed with the iphone when the vast vast majority of users have Java ME enabled devices. When we first started the restrictions on the environment were horrible but now devices (particularly sonys I might add) can handle large Jar files and are very well behaved. Java ME with the manufacturers help still enter the main stream.

DW: What would you like to see from Sony Ericsson that makes your life as a mobile developer easier?

RS: What would be great would be more tools to overcome the issues above.
Not just tools from Sony for Sony phones but a collective effort from a number of manufacturers. Getting behind the LWUIT project would be a good start.

Thanks, Richard! There’s still a future for Java ME after all, it seems.

What’s your view on the future of Java ME? Tell us!

Erik Starck
Community Manager, Developer World

Posted in Community | Tagged , | 1 Comment

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