SymbOne: The question that everyone has been asking is why the A920 is a locked down phone, can you perhaps clarify why?

Eddie: It comes down to the location APIs, because these APIs allow an application to determine where the handset is there are privacy issues which rest with the operator and initially we felt that the risk associated with these APIs justified locking the phone down.

SymbOne: Sounds as though the situation will change.

Eddie: Certainly, one of the benefits to 3 of the A920 is the fact that it runs the Symbian OS and can run any application written for a UIQ phone. In fact I already have some competition entries which are existing UIQ applications and they are running fine on the A920. So yes things are going to change, we intend launching a web based signing tool that will allow developers to sign their applications.

SymbOne: So the phone will still be locked but developer will be able to easily access the signing tool – why not simply open the phone?

Eddie: Its mainly a commercial decision, by signing their application developers would get channel access which will be a 3 portal directly to the handsets. The portal will allow us to report on the volumes of application sales and make sure we are offering developers the most appropriate terms for shipping their applications through our channel.

SymbOne: So how soon do you expect the signing process to be in place?

Eddie: The original planning was to have it in place after the developer competition had finished but I am hoping to start the process before the competition completes.

SymbOne: I’m sure that will be seen as positive news by many developers.

Eddie: I hope so.

SymbOne: So hopefully developers will be able to get their UIQ applications signed and A920 ready during November.

Eddie: They can do that right now, the tools are in the competition pack.

SymbOne: But will we see the A920 effectively open before the end of the year?

Eddie: We’ve taken on board the comments of the developers and are looking into this for future handsets.

SymbOne: Perhaps I can finish by asking a bit more about the competition, I noticed that it does not cover PersonalJava just MIDP, why is that?

Eddie: It is mainly because MIDP is a strategic language for 3, all our handsets support it. Because of that we have the infrastructure set up to deal with MIDP applications, to test and evaluate them. However to be honest I won’t turn away any PersonalJava applications.

SymbOne: Developers originally have until 1st November to make their submissions, but that date has been extended to 14th November. Usually extending the submission date means there has been a poor response, is that what has happened here?

Eddie: No, on the contrary we have been getting a great response, but we had allowed time between the closing date and when we would start judging to iron out any issues with getting applications running on the A920, but we have found it’s a breeze. Existing UIQ applications run with only a couple of lines changed so we no longer need that time to iron out the kinks because there aren’t any.

SymbOne: You have also arranged an internal showcase which seems to be a new part of the competition.

Eddie: Yes, we were showing some of the applications we have already received to our colleagues in Italy and they were really impressed with what these Symbian applications could do and they suggested we do an update. Our team from Hong Kong also saw some of the apps and immediately wanted contact information to look at launching them in Hong Kong so we knew we had to bring the management and marketing teams together to show them the top 20 applications along with the best of the rest.

SymbOne: In terms of the A920’s capabilities what seems to be interesting developers the most?

Eddie: By far the feature that has caused the most interest are the location APIs. We already have the AGPS system up and running and are testing a number of our own A920 applications in the network. Obviously the location APIs allow developers to link into their own mapping data and I believe its pretty much the first phone to allow developers to do this so it is really exciting.

SymbOne: So overall are you pleased with the response to the competition?

Eddie: So far very, its certainly going as well if not better than I hoped. The developer response has been great and UIQ has performed just as it should letting the A920 run existing applications and it look like we will have some interesting new applications taking advantage of some of our unique technologies like AGPS.

There is still time to enter the 3 A920 developers competition, for all the details see the competitions web pages here.