Corona SDK on NOOK and what it means for you
Carlos Icaza, Ansca Mobile
Today, we announced our support for the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color tablet.
We are very excited to bring you another platform to deploy your applications and for you to be able to monetize your apps through more app stores and on other non-iOS/Android devices. Yes, the NOOK runs under Android 2.2 Froyo, but the OS is specifically tailored to run on the NOOK, and we are adding a slew of NOOK-only features into Corona to enhance the overall experience of your application when running on a NOOK device.
Getting Corona SDK to support the NOOK device started because of Ted Patrick, Chief Evangelist of Developer Relations for Barnes & Noble, who invited me to the NOOK launch party late last year. Ted and I go way back when we first met while at Macromedia, circa early 2005 and when we got talking about supporting NOOK my eyes just lit up. I thought back then and I still think, the NOOK is well positioned to not just be another eReader. It is now a “mobile device.” When we first got Corona apps running on early NOOKs, we were blown away by the performance that Corona apps ran under the then-nascent tablet.
Ted Patrick wrote a nice blog entry about Corona earlier this year. Some of you were keen to it and surmised right away we were up to something. Indeed we were.
Ultimately, what does all this mean to you? At a high level, it means two things:
First, it means that youhave an additional platform to monetize on. And second, (the most important thing in my opinion) is that by using Corona, you can focus on great app and game development, while we focus on the platform intricacies.
Just pause here for a second, and think about what I just wrote.
Conversely, you can ask yourself, what other platforms is Ansca going to support next? It is a safe bet, that if you focus your app development with Corona, we will eventually support any new platform that we think is viable and has a good chance of succeeding. And all you would have to do at that point, is just click build -> some new device and PRESTO! Your app on a new platform.
I know that you have a lot of questions right now in regards to NOOK and Corona SDK for NOOK subscription costs, availability, international developers, plus tons of other questions about Corona and our future roadmap, features, etc. So, Walter and I plan to hold a new webcast next week where we will share more information with you. We will post the webcast time/date as soon as possible; and yes, we will record the webcast in case you can’t make it.
As always, if you have additional questions, feel free to e-mail them to me.
Also, there’s always the comments section… 
Carlos
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I love that I can focus on building something fun (and hopefully lucrative) have a partner like Ansca who worries about how to get it out to the ever growing and ever changing list of platforms. THANK YOU Ansca!
I’m just hoping that you’re not getting too carried away trying to be too many things to too many people…
As this rules out any non US companies and individuals in general, this is a very limited platform that Corona supports and so is of no interest for any non US Corona User. I wish Ansca would have implemented OSX App Store and IntelUP or Windows desktop in general. Now that would have been something we all could have used.
Oh well, someone can’t have everything.
Actually, Rovio has apps (i.e. Angry Birds) on the Nook store, so you *can* put an app on the Nook as a non-US company/individual. We’re working with the B&N folks to get more details. Will update when we know more.
Contrary to Michael’s comment, I believe the addition of any serious platform is a benefit, even if it is only available in one country – NOOK is a serious platform in the US. I believe this because it benefits the Corona platform as a developer destination, which benefits everyone else.
Having said that, I would very much like to be able to build apps for the Mac platform. Of course, the challenge there is that the interface is significantly different than providing a build which is so similar to an existing Android one. (Though I doubt the challenge was as small as I may allegedly suggest with that sentence.)
I think this is great news. I am always a supporter of being the first to explore a new market especially if it has a huge potential. Hopefully Ansca can get the Nook version quickly so some of us can port our existing apps and add a nook specific wow factor. I also hope B&N sort out the international developer quickly just like Amazon AppStore where it is open to international developer but available only to their US customer.
Corona Domination > Mac App Store – Intel AppUp – Windows Phone – webOS – Bada – BlackBerry OS > Everytime – Everywhere !
That is great!
Can’t wait to get me one of these devices and start developing for it.
It would be awesome if Barns & Noble could offer a coupon code for Corona developers on the nook color device…
Carlos, this is very interesting news. Do you know if Barnes and Noble will have different or more demanding requirements for e-books apps?
I am currently finishing up an interactive children’s e-book (my first corona app!) and I’m worried I might find my app rejected from the Nook Shop if Barnes and Noble would like all their e-books to adhere to their own set of guidelines for presentation or interactivity, etc., or if they might simply not want to allow apps that would compete with the books in their own set of offerings. Any ideas about their direction on this?
Thanks, and thanks for the great work on Corona!
P.S. Second that suggestion that it would be great if we get a discount for nook color to test on. After all, the more the developers, the stronger their platform, right?
What’s the latest with this? I haven’t seen any updates on it. I”m a native iOS developer and would consider porting my apps to the NookColor if I could do it with Corona.