With Hewlett-Packard reportedly planning to shutter its all-too-quiet webOS division (CP: Samsung tablet footing more tenuous than record smartphone sales) it's little wonder that Richard Kerris, its vice president of worldwide developer relations, high-tailed it out of there last week. Kerris, HP confirmed to PreCentral, left HP to "pursue an opportunity outside of the company."
Translation: He went to work for Nokia. Which of course in Microsoft's Windows Phone has a new OS that it's anxious to re-introduce to developers.
Kerris, along with boss Marco Argenti, told AllThingsD that their plans for courting developers to the Windows Phone platform includes helping them to build not just their code but their businesses.
One- and two-man shops, said Kerris, "may not know how to get their businesses off the ground." Nokia can lend a hand.
The pair said that they want to convince developers that Nokia has "something unique to offer," is focused on offering not just technology but a full opportunity, and that they're interested in both big developers and "emerging application creators," who will be drive the future's real opportunities.
The wooing can't happen quickly enough. With the arrival of the iPhone 4S — and sales of 4 million units in three days — the market share of Apple's iOS leapt to nearly 62% in October, according to new data from Net Applications.
Google's Android, too, continued to grow, jumping ahead of Java ME into the number-two spot with a nearly 19% share. Java ME dropped to 13%, followed eventually by a fourth-place Symbian, with a 3.5% share.
RIM's BlackBerry OS fell slightly from September, to 2.5%, and behind it, finally, was Windows Mobile, with a 0.20% share.
On Oct. 26, Nokia introduced two Lumia smartphones, its first, it told Nokia World attendees, to not only run Windows Phone, but to amplify and complement it (CP: Nokia intros Lumia and Asha phones with emphasis on craftsmanship).
"Lumia is the first real Windows Phone," said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.
Kerris and Argenti, no strangers to trying to convince developers there's life beyond Android and Apple, will be trying to make that translate into real market share.