Nokia is a big corporation, and it's clear that some parts of it are inflexible. Even though Nokia seems to be changing in the right direction, it might take years to get to where we want to be, by which time the battle for developers will be lost.
So let me propose something completely different, starting from these assumptions:
1. There are talented Maemo developers who have written great software that is commercially viable.
2. There are plenty more talented Maemo developers who would write such software if they had a simple way to sell it.
3. Due to our background in Open Source, we tend to have different values and interests from mainstream software companies.
4. Most of us would be (at best) small-time developers. So we need a commercial framework that's very simple and has a very low barrier to entry.
Here's what I suggest.
Am I understanding correctly this is almost exactly Solution #2 in Brainstorm ? People downvoted it like hell without any meaningful comments.
If you're posting free software, what stops someone simply pulling the software from your 'premium' repo and reposting it in maemo-extras?
In fact, other than charging 25 USD a year, how does this proposal differ from maemo-extras?
It should be the other way round. Extras IS the premium repo here, as it's the one with the infrastructure, QA, promotion and all. 25/yr is a bit steep, it should be a micropayment. Like 1$/month. Then you can say Apple folks I get access to X thousand apps for 1$ a month, and I get to keep all of them if I decide to quit ! If you're a geek and into coding you can get the sources and make your own repo/version stuff, but that one has no 'seal of approval' nor does it reward the actual developers, so it's bound to be less popular. If you're not a developer and you don't care about that then you're not that much different than folks who get warez, in which case, again, nothing lost (and at least there won't be embarrassing legal followups).
Jan Bonnevier has been just talking about Ovi Store and was asked specifically about opening the publishing process for the individuals. The reply was: I don't dare to comment on those plans. He also stated that he is aware of the problem and freelancers wanting to publish, but this problem is still not addressed yet.
So the discussion is open.
[edit] I had a chance to talk to Jan and he elaborated a bit on the subject of requirements for the publisher. In general, it just needs to be a registered company, doesn't matter if it is 50 people or one person. He promised to send me some materials about this, I'll let you know if there is anything new/interesting in there.
He also said that they (Ovi people) are aware of the gap between free repositories and Ovi Store being only for companies. He also said that he sees a place for $1 applications that are used once and then forgot, if that's what people want/like.
No specifics about this, they are still thinking how to address this issues.
This is really true. Go to the free games on OVI and read the comments from the users. I stop downloading software unless I know the company. Before you can start paying the game they ask to enter the net and than that suck huge amount of data. It’s impossible to stop. Once I had to take the battery. And this is done by big companies (I don’t see the propose but they should have one for sure). I guess that you don’t find this in maemo and it’s made by simple people (no big companies).
Nokia should definitely change this. For their sake.
If half the content on Ovi Store really is malicious (which I still find hard to believe), then why does any consumer use it at all, and why would anyone want to publish there?
Out of interest, do we have any idea how many people are developing for the N900 Ovi store? Would be amusing if I was the only person with apps on it...
