Given that only a handful of third party applications are shipped in the ROM of Sony Ericsson's P910 UIQ based smartphone, it is perhaps a little curious that a paper about the process has been posted on its Developer World website.

"We get many developers approaching us at events wanting to talk about how to get their application installed on Sony Ericsson devices," says Mikael Nerde, the Head of Sony Ericsson's Developer Program. "It is clearly the goal of many developers, but it is not necessarily the best way for a developer to take their application to market. With the Quickoffice Developer Case Study for the P910 we wanted to provide developers with a realistic view of what is involved, but also show them there are many other profitable routes to market."

At the start of development, each new Sony Ericsson device is subject to extensive requirements gathering. This involves operators, corporate and enterprise customers, as well as individual customers. Added to this is the insight of the Sony Ericsson product planning and platform development teams. "Early in the P910's development it became clear that the ability to open and edit documents received by email, particularly the common office documents, was important," says Mikael. "Knowing this we evaluated the market, even looking at what was available on other platforms. It was soon clear that Quickoffice fulfilled the requirements and more importantly was a stable product on the UIQ platform from a well established company." Stability is clearly a key factor for Sony Ericsson to consider on-device bundling. It is not just application stability, a company is chosen for its ability to provide support in the long term, which requires financial stability too.

Paul Moreton Senior Director, Business Applications at MDM, also points out another reason why financial stability is important. "One of the drawbacks to on-device bundling is that there is a significant delay between the application development work finishing and when you get revenue from device shipments." In the case of the P910 the Quickoffice team started development work twelve months before the P910 was shipped. Paul added, "The download market is strong for the P800, P900, and P910, so it may be a better alternative for some developers, since the requirements for being pre-loaded on a device are stringent. Developers should also realize that their product needs to appeal to a wide audience if it's to be pre-loaded."

Working with Sony Ericsson or any device manufacturer puts additional pressure on a developer to deliver on time and to quality. Delays in one of the third party on-device applications could delay the whole project, not something which would be tolerated lightly. While a developer may believe they are good at achieving deadlines there are aspects of working with a device manufacturer they may not have considered. MDM was already familiar with working with device licensees, Quickoffice is also available as a built in option on several Series 60 phones, but each new licensee brings challenges. "Symbian OS licensees have very similar processes for implementing third party software on their devices," says Paul. "But there are differences, the most significant ones are undoubtedly the development and testing tools, and the procedures surrounding them. These differ considerably, even though the standard of the final application is the same. This means we need to purchase and learn new tools and follow different processes for each licensee, which, at least for the first implementation, adds extra pressure to the timelines and costs of development."

When delivering an on-device application, one area that is a little easier for the developer is localization. This is because a large portion of the localization work is done by Sony Ericsson. "We have a well established localization process within Sony Ericsson, as you might expect considering we ship a device like the P910 in more than 20 language variants," says Mikael. "One of the reasons we take this task from the developer is to ensure that the vocabulary used is consistent with the rest of the phone's applications." However just because Sony Ericsson does the translation does not mean the developer has no work to do. "To ensure the localization is as accurate as possible we have to provide Sony Ericsson with detailed screen shots showing where each text string is used and their respective context," says Paul. "This is needed to ensure that words in English which are context sensitive are translated correctly. Also, after the translation has been done we still have to do all the testing to ensure all the menus, messages and prompts are displayed correctly."

One of the toughest problems for many developers with pursuing on-device bundling is that the opportunities are inevitably limited. "I don't think we are anywhere near the limit of how much software we can ship with a Symbian OS device," says Mikael. "However there is a limit, and it is not simply how much we can squeeze into a device's ROM. The management of multiple vendors, often across multiple time zones, adds complexity to a project. It is these factors which will constrain the number of additional components and applications we can ship on a device."

When asked to summarize the lessons learned from the process, Mikael said the whole exercise was worthwhile since Sony Ericsson developed its relationship with MDM, and a primary goal of Sony Ericsson Developer World is to find great applications for the company's phones. "Quickoffice Premier has contributed to the expected value proposition and end-user experience of the product," he said. Paul Moreton added, "Mobile Digital Media has been able to achieve its absolute goal for the Quickoffice Premier application. We believe smartphones need Office applications and we were therefore honored to be included on the P910, a flagship product."

Ultimately Paul sums the process up as "beware of what you ask for: remember that on-device bundling is not the be all and end all." However Paul admits it has been very worthwhile for MDM. "We are now a UIQ Select company and Quickoffice's presence on the P910 almost certainly helped us reach that status. In addition being on the P910 has helped our download sales for the P800 and P900."

"For Sony Ericsson Developer World it is always rewarding to see one of our partner companies get their application on a device like the P910," says Mikael. "But you have to remember we didn't have to do the development!"

Any developer building a business plan for their Symbian OS application should consider on-device bundling. However while it has its rewards it has its cost too. There may be kudos in being built into a device but it may not be the right business decision. There are also other go-to-market opportunities that might be more appropriate for the majority of developers, such as the Sony Ericsson Application Shop.

The case study "Quickoffice Premier for Sony Ericsson here.