Nokia is losing its executive vice president Tero Ojanperä, who has resigned to focus attention on his investment startup Vision+, but the vendor will maintain ties by backing the new firm financially.
The vendor will become an anchor investor in the startup in a bid to boost the number of applications available across all Nokia handset platforms, including its forthcoming Windows Phone smartphones. The investment will focus heavily on localized applications, which Marco Argenti, senior vice president of developer experience, believes will be the next ‘big thing’ in the mobile apps space.
“The Nokia developer program provides strong support for local developers and it aims to have the most local application portfolio,” Argenti states.
Vision+ claims it can speed the introduction of innovative new apps by closely matching development projects with customers, and allows developers to retain intellectual property rights to help them grow their business. It currently focuses on applications covering gaming, entertainment, education and healthcare, and offers developers a revenue-sharing business model.
Ojanperä says he will leverage the industry relationships built up during a 21 year career at Nokia in his new role as managing partner of Vision+. The new firm will “support to developers and entrepreneurs” as they seek to monetize new applications in global and local markets, he states.