During a snowy week in Europe I travelled to London and Berlin to moderate the the AppLab events being run by Intel. I learnt more about the strategy and details but also got some interesting feedback and feelings from the atendees. For those of you not up-to-date with the Intel AppUp Developer Program (IADP) let me try to explain I’ve got time; A 5hr journey back from Berlin to Bonn! Skip the first section if you know the history.

The story so far…

Intel have a strategy (a ‘Continuum’ in their words) of mobile and embedded platforms based on the Atom CPU core that stretches way into the future. The new generation of Atom-based platforms start to move away from the traditional PC architecture in order to gain a foothold in the ‘always-on’ category of devices. Unfortunately, there isn’t a Microsoft OS product that works well with these platforms (a first for Intel?) so Intel have teamed with Nokia to build an open-source Linux core that if focused on mobility and fits with both Intel and ARM platforms. That OS is called MeeGo and it is under the care of the Linux Foundation. Meego implements a user interface layer using the Qt product that Nokia own. The Symbian Foundation also use this in Symbian. A basic application suite is being built along with reference UI models.In order to compete with similar mobile products, Intel is also building an application store framework with monetisation possibilities. Finally, there’s a marketing program aimed at seeding the applications. That’s the Intel AppUp developer program. Phew!

Intel Atom platform + MeeGo core + Qt layer + Apps + Appup monetisation for new apps + pot of gold to stimulate the whole stack.

MeeGo is clearly critical for Intel. It’s also critical for Nokia. They are public in saying that next generation smartphones, high-end products, will be based on Nokia. It scares me to think of the amount of money that is on the table here. It’s also interesting to note that AppUp is already available for Windows and targeted at netbooks, a category that is merging with laptops and getting less and less attention as time goes on. Marketing efforts for AppUp and MeeGo have just kicked off with the MeeGo Portal on the AppUp website.

What is AppLab?

We’ve seen The Intel Elements AppUp event in San Francisco (Sept. Report here) and the first joint effort for MeeGo in the MeeGo conference in November.  Both were very big events. On a smaller scale, Intel’s regional offices are running their own programs in order to grow local developer interest and to make connections with ISV’s and finally, we get to AppLab, the events run by the Europe, Middle-East and Africa team (EMEA) who seem to be leading the local effort.

If you’re a developer interested in MeeGo and Intel’s new mobile platforms and opportunities, you definitely need to keep an eye out for events in your country. They are small, well-focused and bring some of the senior members of the teams to you. If you’re not interested in Atom, MeeGo and AppUp, then all I can say is that you need to keep an eye on it!

As you’d expect the events expand on what I’ve just summarised and go deep into explaining the MeeGo architecture, how AppUp works, what tools to use and what the platforms will be able to offer in terms of products.  See below for links to the slides and a video stream.

London.

A slightly busy exhibition of mobile applications in London (Apps World, Olympia) meant that the crowd was largely transient although it was good to see a core of a bout 30 people stay and listen to the whole 4 hours of talks. The crowd were from various parts of the UK with about 30% developers and 30% marketing people. Presentation detail was good but speakers should definitely aim to pep-up and tidy-up their presentations. To be honest, as the moderator, there’s room for me to do the same! This is a critical product for Intel and that impression didn’t come across despite the obvious excitement from the speakers when in a one-to-one chat. Intel should also aim to bind the community together under some sort of interest group created for each event. With many people coming from London it makes sense to sponsor user-group meetings.

Berlin

The mood and setup was convivial, the church-hall location surprisingly well set-up. The sessions and speakers went from top to bottom and as deep as was needed and the small number of local people (about 25 at the Berlin event due to some terrible Europe-wide weather in the days running up to the event) helped to create a real atmosphere of community that should aim to keep connected in Berlin. The specialists brought across their subjects well although again, a measure of excitement needs to be injected. For those in Berlin that are interested in connecting to other users, check out Mobile Freidae, an independent website and community that has already held MeeGo get-togethers.

Use Local MeeGo Networks as connectors?

MeeGo, AppUp, IADP and the related products are new, interesting opportunities and Intel/Nokia really need the word to be spread. If you’re interested in setting up a local MeeGo interest group and covering AppUp, see the MeeGo Wiki.

New News

These events aren’t meant for major announcements but if you listen carefully, you can pick up a few hints.

• The IADP team is going to LeWeb in Paris, France this week. There was also a mention of new languages for AppUp. Add the two together for the answer!
• The MeeGo SDK is coming for Mac-based development to add to Linux and Windows-based environments.
• There’s a desire to make some of the (expensive) software tools low-cost or free for MeeGo devs. The Intel tools (compiler, libraries etc.) are very Atom and power-focussed. If this happens it’s a major advantage for Intel/MeeGo developers.
• I’m getting the feeling that AppUp for MeeGo is coming in Q1 2010. Certainly the marketing is ramping up already.
• There’s lots of prizes, support and free marketing available for early developers. More coming in 2011 (Bigger, apparently.)
• Dixons/Currys/PC World in the UK are ready to push a AppUp on their products; Right up into Laptops.

Is MeeGo the catalyst?

One thing that was easy to spot at the events was the interest in MeeGo. It’s not difficult to see why because the ecosystem for Windows is already mature and splintered. MeeGo is connected with a new, clear and mobile strategy. It’s new too which means there’s an excitement about being first. As we go into 2011, I expect the MeeGo/AppUp story to converge although it will be interesting to see how Nokia markets MeeGo/OVI. In theory, Qt provides a way to write an app and put it across both platforms but that message hasn’t really gone out yet and will be quite the marketing challenge as both sides look to promote their own developer opportunities. Will Windows+MeeGo be bigger than Symbian+MeeGo?

More events planned? MeeGo Roadshow!

I asked Stefan Englet, segment manager for EMEA at Intel about future Intel AppLab events…

We will continue doing “AppLabs” to give developers a full overview of the Intel AppUp Developer Program, the support they [can receive] and the opportunities for monetizing their applications. Additionally we will set up a MeeGo road show through central Europe, providing the latest about the cool new mobile OS – stay tuned, planned for 2nd quarter 2011.

The AppUp team is at LeWeb this week. Keep an eye out for Scot Appland and Peter Biddle, both senior members of the core AppUp team.

As for global activities, we’ll have a chance to catch up with the AppUp teams at CES in January so stay tuned here for more.

You can also check out this forum on the Intel Software Network for more event information.

All presentations from the event (PDF)

• Marketing overview
• MeeGo overview
• AppUp SDK details
• AppUp Validation process
• Intel optimisation tools

More information.

• End-user applications site: AppUp.com
• Developers should start here
• MeeGo / AppUp Portal is here and contains links to all the tools.
• AppUp forums at the Intel Software Network
• There’s also a site, MeeGo.com/Developers for the MeeGo-focused
• Video streams from the event are here and here. (Low-Q recordings of the live stream)

The AppLab events were fun and educational and really underline the importance of these products for Intel. Next update is expected in just four weeks at CES, Las Vegas.

In a call with Intel last Friday we heard about a ‘Million Dollar Development Fund’ which should be officially  launching right about now. (Should appear here.)

The fund is aimed at reducing the challenges that developers might have in developing for the Intel Atom Developer Program and it appears to be another part in an ongoing effort to seed the developer program.

The goal of the fund is to help accelerate innovation of software applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products, starting with netbooks and eventually supporting a variety of consumer electronics, including smartphones. With the netbook market segment set to grow from 35 million in 2009 to 139 million in 2013*, this new fund is designed to open up new opportunities for developers and independent software companies worldwide.

The Intel Atom Developer Program Million Dollar Development Fund represents Intel’s global commitment to support innovation by developers and software companies. The fund will be available to individual and student developers, as well as small, medium and large software companies to support the creation of new compelling applications and netbook user experiences. Hardware and financial aid also will be available to developers with the objective of reducing barrier to entry for new application development and accelerating time to market.

The first three elements of the development fund are available now with more to be announced over the coming months.

• Fast Track 2010: Developers want quick revenue and increased visibility. For 250 selected validated applications submitted between March 1-31, 2010, the developer or software company will receive $500. Talk about fast revenue!

• Download 2010: Revenue from one download is nice, but how about maximizing it? For 100 selected validated applications submitted between March 1-31, 2010, Intel will add to a developer or software company’s revenue on the Intel AppUp Center for 4 months (even for free apps).

• The Intel Atom Developer Challenge: This contest offers great prizes and marketing exposure for developers and their applications. Developers can join now at http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/contest/developerchallenge, and watch for the announcement of more prizes on March 9, 2010.

So that means if even you developer a free app, you’ll get $500 when it’s approved and $2 per download. (Up to a limit of $5K for a free app. $25k for a paid app.)

It’s Windows-only right now but expect further announcements (and we get the feeling that more funds are set-aside) for the Moblin, sorry MeeGo-based app store soon. You should also see third-party app stores being built into OEM netbooks soon so there’s even more change that customers will download your app.

It’s a very interesting move by Intel and proves that applications stores are big business and costing millions and millions to get going. The next stage will be to convince the existing 40 million-plus netbook users to download and install the AppUp Center on their netbooks. Maybe if the apps are worth having, that stage will happen automatically!

What a fantastic start to the year we’ve had at Meet Mobility. First we’re live in Vegas at the Runcore booth and then a few weeks later, we’re running four sessions in Barcelona at the Intel booth at Mobile World Congress. I think I can speak for the whole Meet:Mobility team when I say that joining our individual web forces for podcasts and events has been one of most rewarding and exciting things we’ve done. You can guarantee we’ll be organising more of these events and as I write this, Sascha and JKK are trying to organise something for CeBIT next week so stay tuned.

My favourite session at MWC last week was the 30 minutes we spent with Scott Apeland. Scott is Director of Intel’s Developer Network and was able to answer most of our questions on the Intel Atom Developer Program, the AppUp Center Beta and the MeeGo announcement. The session is split into three parts and is available over at MeetMobility.

Intel are going to make my Mifi giveaway (coming up this week) look a little cheap! Read on…

Intel have just announced that the SDK for the Intel Atom Developer Program has reached Beta stage and along with the announcement comes information about how you can now start testing and submitting applications to their program. In order to get things moving, Intel are offering some big big prizes. How about a Smart Car or a $20K vacation? There are 100 netbooks on offer too!

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening.

• The beta version of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit for both Microsoft* Windows (C and C++) and Moblin (C) is now available. The features of the beta SDK include authorization, crash reporting, a consumer store client emulator for testing, license management and revenue management.
• Now that the beta SDK is available, developers can complete the required steps to submit their applications and developer components for validation to be sold through Intel OEM partner app stores starting in 2010.
• Submit early. Win big! Applications submitted by December 21, 2009 are eligible for big incentives.
• Enter the Intel Atom Developer Challenge by February 2, 2010. The first 100 validated applications will receive a tricked out netbook, and the talented developers with the most innovative application & elegant application design will win all-expense-paid “rock star treatment” trip to GDC 2010!

You developers get all the perks. Where’s my old Kernighan and Ritchie book?

More information on the latest news and a ton of information links are available on the information page that has just gone live at Intel.

Back at IDF in September we heard a lot about how Intel would be bringing an app store to Windows and Moblin-based netbooks. The Apps store is due to launch early in 2010 but if you want to get a head start on writing apps for a potential 30 Million plus customers (!) then today is your day. The software development kit has arrived.

The goal of the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) is to provide programming framework and libraries that enables the interaction with the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program processes and infrastructure.

The SDK (available here) allows you to program in either C (on Moblin) or C or C++ on Windows.

I’ve written a lot about the IADP on MIDMoves so check this article out (and this one) to find out the IADP and about how to win prizes that include an all-expenses-paid trip to CES!

Intel have set up a big range of resources that you can use too.

• Participate in the new Intel Atom Developer Program SDK Forum.
• Subscribe to the Intel Atom Developer Program Blogs.
• Follow us on Twitter @develop4atom and @intelsoftware
• Join the Intel Atom Developer Program Facebook Fan Page.
• Join the Moblin.org Facebook Group or Moblin.org Facebook Fanpage.
• Watch our Videos on YouTube: http://bit.ly/AtomAppVids and on the Intel Atom Developer Site.
• Follow the IADP Community Manager on Twitter. @mungara

And don’t forget one of the most important aspects about Moblin – During 2010 you will see the platform extended to handhelds too. The potential market for Moblin is rather large!

There’s one thing that always happens at bar camps; people talk. They talk with a passion and if you listen carefully you can always pick up a few little tasty morsels of information.

At the Mobile Dev Camp in Munich today it was no different. Apart from some excellent talks that I’ll write about over at MIDMoves (I had my MIDmoves hat on today) I picked up the following bits of info.

Moorestown /Moblin graphics performance (video below)

I saw a nice demo which made me think that yes, that GMA500 that annoys so many people on the Menlow platform, will be a whole lot better under Moblin and Moorestown and might even work in Menlow. The demo was a MSI Wind U115 playing a Quake III demo in the Moblin OS. 35 fps on an external monitor isn’t bad at all! Apparently the drivers are the latest (under NDA) and were back-ported to work with Menlow. The software engineer ensured me that Moorestown would be better. He also assured me that the core was PowerVR in a GMA500. That’s two software engineers that have confirmed that now. Seeing Moorestown graphic drivers working in Menlow kind of proves it too!

What clock for Moorestown?

More of an engineers hunch than something set in stone was the thought that Moorestown would run up to 1.2Ghz. Actually I see no reason why it can’t go higher over time as long as the devices thermal characteristics allow it. When you think about the processing range that Moorestown could cover you’re looking at something that starts at the current high-end of smartphones and goes up, in multi-threaded form, to at least twice the processing power.

Intel Atom Developer Program.

IADP will launch very early next year. That’s earlier than I thought but the earlier the better because the momentum for the Android and iPhone ecosystem is huge.

HTML5.

HTML5 is exciting. Flash is exciting too but both of these software technologies are going to put more load on your CPU. On mobile devices, that means trouble. Either the battery drains faster or the page loading slows down. You can turn Flash off but I hope you can turn HTML5 support off too otherwise the battery problem on mobile devices just gets worse.

No news on GPU for PineView.

I tried to squeeze out the details from a few people but no-one knew. Is it the GMA 3150 or the GMA500 as I predicted? The jury is still out on that one.

Talk about being put on the spot! Just hours after the announcement of the Intel Atom Developer Program, Ajay Mungara, the Community Manager for the program, asks me about the type of applications we might see on netbooks, the compelling use cases and a ton of other stuff that really made me think quickly and deeply. 14 minutes of brain-drain! Hope you enjoy it.

And please, let me know what you think of the Intel Atom Developer Program. Do you think it will take off? If not, why not?

Based on a projected addressable market of well over 400 million units (media phones) and a multi-million pre-existing netbook user base, it would be crazy for software developers to ignore the potential of Moblin, the Intel Atom Developer Program and App-store. Despite that, Intel want to give you even more reason to start early. They are giving away 100 netbooks for the first 100 applications that they accept into the app-store and a grand prize of an all expenses paid tip to CES. [Did someone just drop the hint that the app store will launch in Jan 2010?]

The Intel application developer program is currently free to enter (it will be $99 per year in the future) and you can develop native apps for either Moblin or Windows or use runtime environments like Air or Java.

• Register for the IADP here
• Find out more about the prizes here.
• IADP Forums are here.
• FAQ is here.
• Official Rules

I would love to hear feedback from anyone going through the Moblin application process so please, write in and tell us about your experiences. What coding skills do you have? How did you find the SDK and documentation? Tips for other developers? If you want to make a more detailed guest post about the IADP, I’ll be happy to send a $50 Amazon gift voucher your way (UK, Germany and US Amazon stores only. Only one article will be accepted for the gift voucher.)

There’s a huge amount of information to digest around the announcement of the Intel Atom Development Program, or app-store but at a special lunch meeting with some of the key people in the IADP team I managed to refine what I think is going on here.

In summary you’re looking at Intel setting up a distribution, billing and  validation process for applications that are built to run on Windows and Moblin-based netbooks. Intel expect most of the (currently 19) Moblin distributors to build this into their Moblin-based distributions and on Windows, the system will be available as a downloadable application. It’s early stages for the program but I’m hearing that work on the back-end is well progressed and making an estimate that we’ll see this being fed into Moblin-based netbooks in the first half of 2010.

Key features of the program:

• To be available for Windows and Moblin-based netbooks initially with other Intel architectures being supported at a later date.
• Intel will manage the billing systems.
• Component sharing to allow code segments, engines etc to be shared in a controlled way and including a financial payments system.
• Reputation points. A feedback mechanism that scores developers.
• Validation process. Intel will run an operation that will check for thinks like: clean install, component use, malware, security, network utilization issues, appropriate content. They will not be testing software for bugs.
• Primary use is for binaries (executable programs) rather than source code. Open source sharing will be supported though.
• There will be a lightweight mechanisms for licensing code to restrict use and provide statistics for developers.

Clearly this is a significant step forward for Moblin but also a significant step forward for distribution of Windows applications for netbooks. Intel are saying that the program is not there to generate revenue directly but to enhance the platform and make it more attractive for end users and developers. (Increased product sales.) The revenue split is likely to be 70/30 with the 30% going towards financing the validation process back-end systems and further development.

With tens of millions of Netbooks already out there and tens of millions coming, this is clearly something that developers need to take a closer look at. Moblin is not just for netbooks and as the platform support widens, I would expect this to be available for devices based on the Moorestown platform later in 2010. With one CPU and software architecture running across all of those platforms, from smartphones to laptops, there is a lot of potential for this to rise high on the list of platforms that developers consider when they write mobile and web-focused software.

For more information, see the new app developer website from Intel