How much does it cost to make a symbian app?

April 15, 2009 9:06 PM

I have an idea for a Symbian app which I want to place on the upcoming Ovi store. Does anyone have any idea on 1. How much a symbian developer would cost for a week of development time (Yes I know this differs - but does anyone have a ballpark figure?) 2. How much it would take to get the approvals, symbian signed app, other costs etc.
posted by friedbeef to technology (5 comments total)

1) I'm a mobile software engineer (I do most everything but Symbian). I charge $65/hour for design, development, and programming. So, a fulltime workweek comes to $2600USD. You can probably find somebody cheaper by the hour, but I don't think you'll find that the productivity:cost ratio varies a whole lot between professionals. And if you hire the $20/hour hack, you'll still wind up paying similarly for overall development as he dicks around--assuming he can even complete it.

Are you just asking so that you can scale that weekly number according to development estimates? Or, do you literally think the application can be completed in a week? I ask because, unless you're a programmer yourself, you are probably severely underestimating the actual complexity of the application--and thereby also its development time. Don't forget testing and quality assurance.

2) Have a look at Symbian Signed. I gather that they do the Symbian app verification. I don't know how much Symbian costs for developer program access, but for comparison Blackberry and iPhone are both around $100USD; Google Android is free. If you must have a third-party QA test house review your app, it can get quite expensive. I've been on projects that paid tens of thousands of dollars for independent testing--although it wasn't for Symbian, and it was a very large application in a regulated market.
posted by Netzapper at 10:21 PM on April 15

Thanks Netzapper - you're right I'm just estimating the 1 week dev time, but it's a simple app. Do you know a rough minimum of how much time even the simplest mobile apps would take in terms of dev/testing/QA?
posted by friedbeef at 11:26 PM on April 15

Here's the problem. I see it constantly. And I really mean you absolutely no disrespect as I explain it.

If you're not a programmer, it's very difficult to determine what application is actually "simple". The disconnect comes from the difference between the simplicity of the application's description, versus the complexity of the implementation.

There're lots of applications that are simple to describe from the user-facing perspective, but represent truly tremendous work on the implementation side. As I think about it, it's probably the norm. The client will say, "I want a program that highlights the people in a photograph," and you'll respond, "That's an open academic research problem. We can pursue it, but you can piss away a hundred grand and still have unacceptable results." Even something as simple as an IM program ("send short textual messages to another user based on nickname") is an awful lot of work to produce at a professional level.

Even programmers misestimate the complexity of applications all the time. Beware the tendency. I once had a program that I estimated would take around two weeks to build. And it did, except that I left for last the task of putting the client's logo on it. Getting the logo in the location the clients wanted it took me another week--because I didn't anticipate how complicated it would be to get the logo in the place they wanted it.

Example mobile programs I could complete, to a professional level, in one work week: video playback from local storage or web server; a non-graphing calculator of nearly any sort; text display from a local file, assuming the file is well-formed when I get it; text/image display from a web service; a simple network client for a documented, existing, non-realtime protocol. Basically, I could, in one week, write a program that handles a single task, assuming that the task is already a solved problem, well-defined, and natively supported by the operating system. If a server component is required in addition to a client, there's no way to do it in a week unless the whole problem is totally trivial.

If you want a ballpark estimate, you're welcome to memail me with an outline of your idea. I'm not a Symbian guy, but I can tell you what I'd estimate for a Blackberry or generic J2ME app.
posted by Netzapper at 11:56 PM on April 15 [2 favorites]

I used to work as a Symbian programmer a long time ago and still have contacts - I can put you in touch with people who could do this, or at least who could provide you with an estimate for how long it would take and how much it would cost.

Netzapper's stated rates sound about right to me.
posted by emilyw at 1:20 AM on April 16

I develop mobile software for several platforms, and Symbian C++ is by far the platform I dislike the most as a development platform... (Using python on Symbian might be better though, haven't tried it yet).

For some applications the development time might take something like 3-10 times longer on Symbian compared to J2ME or .NET CF. While we might charge the same rate for Symbian development, the total estimate would be higher due to the platform. (Although if it would be up to me, we would charge more for Symbian just for the pain of it... :))

Some note on the costs below. These details might not be completely accurate for the Ovi store, apparently Nokia have yet decided the details of the signing and security model. Check the nokia discussion board for updates.

The developer tools are free, unless you want to do on device debugging. Some things are much easier if you have a publisher id ($200, see below). This concerns testing your app on real phones (with out a publisher id you have to submit your app to the symbian signed web site and let them sign it so you can install it on your own phone...)

Depending on what the application does, you might not have to sign it (self signing), but I would be very suprised if the Ovi store allows it.

So you probably need a publisher id from trust center for $200. And you need a registered company to get the it (but it seems that you currently need a company tax id to even register on ovi.com) . Can take a week to get the publisher ID.

To sign the app, there are currently two options, certified signing and express signing.

Certified signing is done by a test house. When we did it the last time, mphasis was cheapest (185 euros). If you need to fix a bug or update the app, another 185 euros... Each testing round takes a couple of days.

Instead of using a test house you can use "express signing" ($20). In this case your app might be selected for auditing, and if you fail you will have to go through a test house the next time.

Note that testing is quite strict - the application can not have any memory or resource leak or crashes at all. All allocated resources must be released manually by the application it self. There are rules about how the program should behave etc. These rules have been relaxed a bit recently though - but basically no (discoverable) bugs are allowed. Proper QA and careful reading of the test criteria before submission is a must.

And people wonder why applications for Symbian phones are bit rare compared to other platforms... :)

So, minimum costs per year is around $220 plus the ovi registration fee ($200 I think) if you can do the express signing route (I'm not sure if the Ovi store will allow it).

The cost for a competent Symbian programmer for a week is probably much larger. Netzapper's $65/hour seems quite resonable.
posted by rpn at 1:21 AM on April 16