Nokia has announced an agreement with the Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute (KGDI), a non-profit government body focused on building the Korean computer games industry.

The Finnish telecommunications giant will work with KGDI to help its developers design products for Western markets in Europe and North America. KGDI developers will also be able to sell their applications though Nokia’s Tradepoint, a content marketplace for the mobile technology industry. The Korean organisation was set up in 1999 and provides technical, marketing and financial assistance to developers.

“Korea has committed enormous resources to establishing creative and technological gaming leadership and we’ve seen an astounding number of high-quality mobile games as a result,” said Vesa-Pekka Kirsi, who heads the games effort for Forum Nokia. “This agreement underscores our commitment to working with some of the world’s leading mobile games developers to help their games get out into the global marketplace.” Young-soo Chong, president, KGDI, added: “This agreement with Nokia helps ensure that our developers have the resources they need to develop applications on the newest devices from Nokia – and opens up distribution channels to get our applications into the hands of the world’s leading operators in order to enable Korean developers to play a leading role in the evolution of this market.”

Insight

Nokia is leveraging its leading position in handsets to foster innovation worldwide. The agreement with KGDI is further evidence that Nokia believes a vibrant and diverse international development community will help establish the market for wireless data services, and therefore secure Nokia’s own growth prospects. Few companies command such influence in the wireless technology industry and the 500 products already available through Nokia’s Tradepoint are testament to the confidence small developers have in the ability of Forum Nokia to connect them with new business opportunities. Forum Nokia is arguably the most complete developer programme in the mobile industry and enjoys support from the very highest level at Nokia.