Nokia Windows Phone will not support Qt, Symbian developers left high and dry

by Sebastian Anthony on February 11, 2011 at 06:16 AM
Following news of the Nokia-Microsoft strategic partnership, Nokia has sent a letter to its beleaguered developers to say that Qt will continue to be the development framework for its Symbian phones -- but as far as Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices go, Qt will not be supported. Silverlight and the XNA framework will be the only options for Nokia WP7 developers.
In the letter, Nokia says that it plans to sell 150 million more Symbian phones -- but presumably, after that, the transition to Windows Phone will be complete and Symbian will die a quiet and ignoble death. MeeGo, the open-source smartphone OS, will still make an appearance later this year -- and yes, it will run Qt apps.
While this doesn't come as a surprise -- porting Qt to WP7 would be a massive and time consuming undertaking -- we have to wonder what this will do to the already-runty Windows Phone 7 app ecosystem. Will Symbian Qt app developers embrace the new platform and learn an entirely new set of programming skills? Or will they jump ship to a stable platform that's proven to work, like iOS or Android?
With Windows Phone 7's complete dearth of features, will Nokia developers even want to write apps for the new Nokia-Microsoft platform? Tags: cellphone, cellphones, microsoft, mobile, nokia, nokia windows phone, nokia-microsoft, NokiaWindowsPhone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, wp7