Nokia wants developers to build great apps for Windows Phone… and keep updating them after they are published. Like almost all of the other major mobile device and operating system makers, Nokia is willing to reward developers for building premium apps.
But Nokia’s incentive program has a twist: it’s been gamified. Nokia’s “DVLUP” incentive program rewards developers for building and updating their Windows Phone apps with marketing and distribution support to help Windows Phone users discover their app. The system is set up like a game (hence the gamified buzzword), with developers competing in quizzes and contests about Windows Phone app development to earn points—called XP—that can be used to redeem marketing tools and support from Nokia.
DVLUP has been in beta since November 2012 and is now just reaching the public realm for developers. The program is free and developers can sign up with a Windows Live ID.
Nokia’s Jason Black describes it in a post on the company’s Conversations blog:
Since it first began nearly one year ago, DVLUP has been designed as a rewards program that makes the most of a “gamification” model, whereby members are encouraged to compete—with one another, and to test themselves—earning badges and points (known as XP), completing quizzes and challenges related to app development, and then being able to collect some serious rewards for their hard work.
If you’re a fan of Nokia phones—and apps in general—DVLUP leads to numerous high quality apps and games being released on an ongoing basis. As a result, you as an owner of a Nokia device get access to new apps that you know have been made by developers who seriously care about their work.