26 January 2006

Quickoffice Software Embedded in Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition

What better measure of success is there for a developer than to have its application embedded in nearly all S60 devices?

Forum Nokia PRO member Quickoffice Inc. took a major step toward making its dream a reality by signing a licensing agreement with Nokia late last year.

As a result, users of S60 smartphones from Nokia can use Quickoffice to access, view, and edit native Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on their devices. The Quickoffice software suite is available in two offerings: one with viewing capability and the other with file-viewing and editing features. Both will be included in the S60 3^rd Edition development environment and will be available to all S60 product managers to embed in their devices.

Porting History of Quickoffice“We began with Quicksheet 1.0 on the Palm in January of 1997, and then released the Palm Office Suite in November
2000,” says Moreton. “By February 2003, we had Quickoffice Premier, which was the first Palm office suite to open native Microsoft binary file formats without a PC. This experience was invaluable to us as we learned what functionality mobile users needed in their smartphone office suite.”

“In 2004, Nokia was a large part of our business.We shipped more than four million units of Quickoffice onthe Series 60 Platform,” says Moreton. “They increasedour business by 30 percent in 2004 and are a big partof our 2005 growth initiatives.”

In late 2002, Quickoffice had already begun porting the suite over to Symbian OS. “We could see that the PDA market was stalling due to market saturation and the fact that smartphones could easily embed all PDA functionality, and we knew that the Symbian OS market was about to take off,” says Moreton. Quickoffice began development on Symbian OS in November 2002, and by February 2003 had released Quickpoint, which enabled Series 60 users to view, edit, and actually give PowerPoint presentations directly from their smartphones by using Bluetooth- enabled projectors. By May 2003, Quickoffice had released Quickword, which allows users to view Microsoft Word files on their Series 60 devices. In March 2004, the entire Quickoffice suite was introduced for Series 60.

The Quickoffice porting team used Metrowerks CodeWarrior as its primary toolkit for making the conversions. “We have used the CodeWarrior tools from version 1.2 of the SDK through version 2.8, which at that point had not yet been generally released,” says Moreton. “On the Forum Nokia side, we get a lot of help, and we try to help them in return. We get the devices very early on in their development cycle — sometimes even before they put the plastic case around it. At this early stage, we can sometimes help in the debugging of the SDK, and in indicating, for example, when a needed library class has been left out of an early-stage device.” The Quickoffice team has localized the product in 36 languages on Nokia devices.

“The embedding of Quickoffice into the Series 60 Platform3rd Edition raises the baseline of the platform itself.It becomes a basis for more functionality”

Forum Nokia PRO and Marketing
“Where Forum Nokia PRO has been exceptionally helpful to us has been in the marketing area,” says Moreton. “That is particularly true in marketing our product internally within Nokia.
In order to get your product onto the ROM that is released with the device — as we have done — you must convince the respective device product managers of the value of your application.
They have to know who you are and what you do. Forum Nokia has been very helpful in that regard, giving us a ‘go-to’ person, both in the Americas and in Finland, who has helped to make the important introductions to the product managers, as well as to include us in Nokia’s marketingefforts at conferences around the world.”

About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. www.nokia.com

About Quickoffice
Quickoffice is the world leader in providing mobile office document software for smartphones, allowing users to open, view and edit Microsoft Office files with complete document data integrity. The company’s flagship product, Quickoffice Premier, continues to receive awards and recognition from industry analysts, the media and users alike. Quickoffice has been thoroughly tested by the rigorous quality standards of leading mobile phone manufacturers and ships through major carriers such as Vodafone®, Orange®, China Mobile®, Cingular® and many more. Fully localized in 36 languages, and shipping worldwide as a built-in solution on a multitude of smartphones, Quickoffice has been a top-selling mobile office application since its market introduction. Privately held, Quickoffice is based in Dallas, Texas.
More information at: www.quickoffice.com