"Nanyang Poly, Nokia and StarHub Join Forces to Set Up Centre to Develop Innovative Mobile Phone Applications"

Singapore, 30 September 2009 – Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Nokia Pte (Nokia) and StarHub have entered into a strategic collaboration to set up the Mobile Inno Sphere Centre at NYP to provide support and training to young developers in the mobile services and applications space.

This strategic collaboration will help drive mobile content and applications development in Singapore and foster the growth of an innovative society through an open developer ecosystem from ideation through to product development and commercialization.

The Centre will train students from NYP’s School of Information Technology and industry professionals on various enabling technologies, and also undertake cutting edge mobile development projects for the industry. Innovative mobile solutions and services developed by the Centre will be promoted and marketed through Nokia and StarHub’s distribution channels.

Nokia, through the Forum Nokia organization, will provide training on Nokia’s mobile technology platform, access to software development kits (SDKs) and tools, and loans of Nokia devices for application development.

StarHub will help source for industry projects for the Centre, and also provide infrastructure support such as SMS gateways and location based services.

The Centre, which is expected to train some 300 students and industry professionals over the next two years, will also showcase the latest mobile technologies and devices from Nokia.

NYP’s collaboration with Nokia dates back to 2004, when they set up the Nokia Certified Training Centre (NCTC) in NYP, the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific. To date, NCTC@NYP has trained more than 400 students from Singapore and countries like Egypt, Philippines and Vietnam. NYP and Nokia have also participated in several joint projects to create mobile applications. One such example was the SMSDivert technology, which was developed and made available to the market in 2004 on Nokia’s Communicator series of business phones.

Quotes

Mr John Tan, NYP's Deputy Principal for Technology said: "This collaboration among Nokia, StarHub and NYP is a long-term talent and research development partnership. It will accelerate the delivery of Nokia Developer Trainings in Singapore and the region through enhanced knowledge transfer among the partners and the industry, bringing tangible values to the professional community. The Mobile Inno Sphere Centre will also serve as an excellent platform for our students to participate in the development of innovative mobile applications and services and gain real-life industry experience."

Kenny Mathers, Head of Developer Relations and Marketing, Forum Nokia, Asia Pacific said: "At Nokia, our conviction is that mobile content development across the different platforms such as web run-time and Qt – one of the fastest growing cross-platform application development frameworks in the world, are key drivers to the growth and evolution of the Mobile Internet. We anticipate rapid growth in this industry as consumers continue to look for their own customised personal mobile experience.Through our collaboration with NYP and StarHub, Nokia is engaging young talent and enabling them to develop their skills in mobile application development. We want to ensure that the students are equipped with the resources and support that will help them raise their expertise and showcase their talent in the mobile applications development space."

Mr Tan Tong Hai, StarHub's Chief Operating Officer, said: "As Singapore's most innovative info-communications provider, StarHub is delighted to team with Nanyang Polytechnic and Nokia to drive the local development of innovative applications for the mobile phone, by identifying industry projects and providing infrastructure support to the Mobile Inno Sphere Centre. We believe this initiative will help the local IT industry by boosting the skill sets for IT professionals and students, and look forward to seeing the Centre's creation of innovative and fast-to-market mobile solutions or services that we can introduce to end-users."