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Nokia woos developers with cheaper listing

€50 to you guv, and I'll throw in a signature too

Nokia has been making itself pretty for developers – launching a new SDK for Qt applications, dropping the cost of Ovi listing to €50 and signing applications for free.

Not only that, but the Finns reckon they can get the average signing time for applications down to two weeks, along with making the whole process a lot cheaper and letting individuals as well as companies put their work onto the Ovi shelves.

The cost reduction is considerable – All About Symbian provides the figures that used to include the purchase of a "Publisher's ID" at $200, then spending €10 to have a basic application signed, and then the company (for it must be a company) has to shell out €50 to register with Ovi before the application gets listed.

That's now replaced with a €50 signing-up fee, which can be paid by individuals as well as companies, with basic applications being signed for free.

Equally important is the launch of a new Qt developer's kit (SDK) which has been in beta for a couple of months but is now available to download. Nokia is betting a lot on Qt, which can be used to create applications that will run across the company's platforms (Symbian and Maemo MeeGo).

New in the release is a Smart Installer that can automatically download any necessary Qt libraries – important to support all those legacy handsets out there.

Lowering the barriers to entry is what Nokia needs, and while some developers fear it will lead to the Ovi store getting clogged up with farting applications and the like, one has to remember how successful that's proved for Apple. ®

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