Digia outlined a series of ambitious goals for the Qt application development framework at the Qt Developer Days 2012 in Berlin and also showcased a number of new projects begun since Digia assumed full responsibility for Qt. Digia senior vice president Tommi Laitinen and Lars Knoll, CTO, Digia Qt and Qt Project Chief Maintainer, outlined a strategy and roadmap that aims at Qt becoming the world’s leading cross-platform development framework within five years.

Digia Keynote Maps Path for Qt

In his keynote address, Laitinen laid out the core values on which the Digia Qt strategy will be based:

· #1 in multi-platform support

· #1 in developer experience

· #1 in creating great user experiences

· Belief in dual licensing model

· Strong value generating ecosystem

· Open business architecture

Digia’s vision is to enhance Qt to make it not only the most efficient and usable framework for multi-platform development but also the one that delivers the best experience, both for developers and the end users of their products.

At the heart of the plan is a new open business architecture paired with the existing open source and commercial dual licensing model. This will all be underpinned by a strong, value-generating ecosystem that will benefit the Qt Project and the entire Qt community by funding the maintenance and continuous improvement of the Qt framework.

Laitinen said: “We are very excited about the new Qt strategy. The computer industry is changing rapidly, especially when it comes to user interfaces and user experience. Qt is gearing up to fill the gaps in the market place and provide developers with one toolset to rule all environments. Qt 5 is the first stepping stone in our strategy providing an amazing developer experience and performance.”

A video of his complete keynote address will be available in the Qt Studios YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/QtStudios) channel shortly.

Projects from the Labs

Digia demonstrated the progress of several high priority projects that its team has been working on, “Projects from the Labs”. These included:

· A prototype of preliminary support for iOS on soon to be launched, Qt 5.

· Qt support for WinRT tablets.

· A sneak peak of Qt 5 on the Android port created in the Necessitas project and soon to be contributed to the Qt Project.

· Qt with HW accelerated 3D user interface on the VxWorks operating system.

· The labs project with code name ‘Boot to Qt’ demonstrated a Qt application running on an Android base layer, which puts Qt on top as a graphical interface with the goal to make embedded development on Linux as seamless as possible.

· Qt Quick desktop components - showing a popular UI fully developed with Qt Quick.

· Qt on retina Mac – showcase of Qt on high-dpi retina displays.

All these demoed projects inch Digia towards its goal of Qt being #1 in multi-platform support and also enabling developers to easily develop and quickly deploy to popular platforms with a smooth and uncomplicated developer experience.

Video of the demonstrations will be posted soon after the event on the Qt Blog – blog.qt.digia.com.

Qt Developer Days 2012, co-hosted by three of the leading players in the Qt ecosystem – Digia, ICS (http://www.ics.com/) and KDAB (http://www.kdab.com/) – provides an opportunity for Qt experts and developers around the world to gather and share knowledge and best practice. The event includes: technical tracks on the latest innovations; hands-on training sessions; specialized workshops; and demonstrations of ground-breaking applications.

As custodian of the Qt Project (http://qt-project.org/), Digia Qt is committed to working with the Qt community to ensure the continuing development of open source and commercially licensed software in a manner that benefits all users. This will be achieved by harnessing the knowledge, expertise and commitment of all members of the Qt ecosystem.

About Qt

Used by over 450,000 developers worldwide, Qt is a full framework that enables the development of powerful, interactive and platform-independent applications. Qt applications run native on desktop, embedded and mobile host systems, enabling them to deliver performance that is far superior to other cross-platform application development frameworks. Qt’s support for multiple platforms and operating systems allows developers to save significant time related to porting to other devices.

About Digia, Qt

Digia is responsible for all Qt activities including product development and commercial and open source licensing. Since March 2011, Digia Plc, the Helsinki-based services and consulting powerhouse listed in the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki exchange (DIG1V) has been the commercial licensor of Qt. In September 2012 Digia acquired the full Qt business from Nokia. Digia operates in China, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA.

Digia has in-depth Qt expertise and experience from demanding mission-critical development projects and hundreds of in-house certified Qt developers. We have helped leading industry players worldwide deploy Qt-based projects in the desktop, embedded and mobile space.

Digia’s goal is to provide desktop, embedded and mobile developers and companies with the most powerful cross-platform UI and application framework. Together with its licensing, support and services capabilities, Digia, Qt operates with the mission to work closely with developers to ensure that the projects are deployed on time, within budget and with a competitive advantage. http://qt.digia.com.

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