Alessandro Pace talks about Kero Mobile, independent App Store for Flash Lite apps

Today Nokia Devs talks with Alessandro Pace, a.k.a. Biskero, experienced Flash Lite developer and blogger.

ND: Welcome Alessandro, please tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a mobile architect, with more then 12 years experience. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, concentrations in digital signal processing and communication networks, and a Master’s degree in Telecommunications systems Management, with a concentration in networking and mobile communications. I am the manager of the Boston Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group, an Adobe community professional on mobile devices, certified instructor and developer for Flash Mobile. I am very active in the Flash Mobile developer community. I am a WURFL contributor for Flash Lite. I am also Co-founder of Mobile Monday Boston. Architect of Kero Mobile Independent AppStore. Forum Nokia Champion and Forum Nokia Launchpad member.

ND: Which platforms and technologies do you use for mobile development on Nokia devices?

I use several different technologies for my projects from Flash Lite to Symbian C++, mobile web and WRT. Now looking at Qt too.

For tools I use Flash Professional, Carbide C++, Qt Creator and my old good text editor.

ND: What is Kero Mobile?

Kero Mobile is a project that I had in mind from several years. Kero Mobile is the next generation service oriented mobile independent AppStore.

Kero Mobile allows mobile users to access mobile applications, games, media, music, social networking communities, news, sport news, blogs, city information, RSS feeds and more. You can browse, view, play and download content via OVI Store. There are 12 different Kero Mobile services, content feedback and social sharing features. Also Flash Mobile and mobile ads are part of the platform.

ND: How did you have the original idea, and why did you choose Flash Lite to implement it?

When I started to look at Flash Lite technology back in 2004 I was surprised how easy is develop mobile content. Also Flash Lite content can be considered an application that can be used within another one. So I started to investigate the feasibility and I begin to design the architecture on my spare time.

ND: Is Kero Mobile open to third party developers?

I am working really hard to allow third parties to create content for Kero Mobile. It will be another distribution channel for developers with an instant revenue stream.

ND: Can you show us some of the apps distributed through Kero Mobile?

At the current moment there are more then 700 apps in Kero Mobile on 80 mobile phones and 197 countries. Here is a short video of Kero Mobile in action:

ND: Which were the main difficulties during its development, and how Nokia resources helped to solve them?

I have spent most of the time to design the architecture of the platform. I had in mind to keep it as simple and flexible as possible to allow me to add new features and complexity over time.

The openness of Nokia devices was key to distribution and reach for Kero Mobile.

Also the number of different mobile technologies supported by Nokia devices allows me to potentially add features to the Kero Mobile platform.

ND: Are you working on new features?

Yes. I am adding more content everyday. Also I am working on automating some parts of the content creation.

For Kero Mobile client I am adding some community features and distribution opportunities. But my focus is to keep Kero Mobile as simple as possible.

ND: Which distribution channels do you use to distribute Kero Mobile?

You can download Kero Mobile from http://www.biskero.mobi. Also I am looking at the OVI Store for distribution. In fact content available in Kero Mobile can be downloaded from within the AppStore. For example some of the games can be played within Kero Mobile and then downloaded from OVI Store directly from the game itself.

As I said before you can browse, view, play and download content via OVI Store. This is the unique feature of Kero Mobile.

More information is available on the blog: http://www.biskero.com/blog/

ND: Which are the major difficulties that you see today for Flash Lite developers? Which the greatest benefits?

Probably the most common issue is to generate revenue streams. And for the technology I do not see any particular issues.

With Nokia devices there is a very clear technology roadmap for the different Flash Lite versions. At the current moment Flash Lite 4 is coming to Symbian^3 Nokia devices.

Also Nokia is supporting Flash Lite developers with tools for free packaging and distribution, a great initiative!

The benefits are definitely the speed of development compared to any other mobile technology.

As the development cost and time to market are fundamental now for anyone in the mobile ecosystem and Flash Lite offer great benefits on this side.

ND: Something else you’d like to tell to Nokia developers?

Nokia is present in every market and giving the Nokia devices reach and upcoming new platforms I see Nokia as number one choice for mobile developers.