Trolltech

I spent a few minutes on Wikipedia today searching for information on Norway. I wanted to learn more about this country I had never been to and while searching I discovered the country is a Kingdom in fact and was settled about 12,000 years ago. I really got into learning about Norway until a coworker told me that Wikipedia is about as accurate as the water cooler gossip you might hear at work.

 
Ever curious I asked for details and was told about a recent fiasco regarding comedian Sinbad who was inaccurately portrayed as dead on the site. If you don’t remember, Sinbad appeared in – well I can’t recall either. Perhaps he had a TV show or something. I may have even laughed at his jokes back in the day.
 
But wait a minute – how did I get on the topic of Sinbad? Wasn’t I focusing on Norway? That in fact is much more germane to technology, right? Well not really but I started my Wikipedia adventure after a conversation I had with a Norway-based company called Trolltech who was founded in the 90s to focus on cross-platform support for applications using C++. So basically an object-oriented approach to write once, run everywhere sort of coding.
 
Companies like Adobe and Google use Trolltech platforms to reduce development time across computer platforms such as Linux, Mac and PC and more recently the company has become a major player in the mobile space taking their write once, run anywhere philosophy to devices on the go
 
As these devices on the go learn to communicate with WiFi access points and begin to think about using Skype, the company saw an opportunity to get involved in the Skype ecosystem to allow ODMs to develop devices which will run Skype on a variety of mobile platforms.
 
The 250 person company has recently been chosen by Skype to connect the Skype interface to the operating system of Skype Certified WiFi handsets. This is a pretty big deal for Trolltech and in talks with the company I learned there are a slew of interesting device possibilities in the works.
 
We can expect to see interesting concepts in Skype and mobility like location-based services, multiplayer games, devices devoted to allowing the elderly to easily videoconference, etc. Moreover we can hope to see implementations of advanced IM applications, music servers and more.
 
In short when you work with Trolltech you have to worry less about cross-platform development and can spend more time on product development. This seems like the ultimate win/win and technology like Trolltech’s will keep the Skype ecosystem alive for years to come. Let’s hope Sinbad lasts just as long as I just can’t wait for him to star in the various sequels to his original hit movies. 😉

    Leave Your Comment


     

    Loading
    Share via
    Copy link
    Powered by Social Snap