A long list of new Windows Phone applications Nokia is developing in conjunction with partners (and a few non-Nokia ones). A number of them are going to be Nokia Lumia exclusives – I’m not sure the rest of the Windows Phone OEMs are going to like that. It’ll be interesting to see how far Nokia and Microsoft can take this before everything snaps.
have put up only token effort to push their WP products, so who cares what they have to say about it? Samsung and HTC are Android shops. That’s where their 99% of their focus is (and good results for Samsung (not so much for HTC anymore)).
Nokia got these developers on the WP train, likely with Nokia funding, so Nokia gets the benefit of limited exclusivity. Samsung and HTC could’ve done similar long ago, since they released 1st gen WP devices long before Nokia ever released anything, but then they decided to sit on their hands, put their WP program into maintenance mode (if even that), and ran back to Android’s ever-loving arms.
Even now, whenever Samsung announces new WP handsets they are in old hand-me-down Android chasis.
Edited 2012-05-08 20:23 UTC
One possible answer here is that these other oems looked at the business side of android vs wp and decided that they would be better long term staying with android: maybe due to license fees, app store cut, MS’s restrictions on their freedom. So they made the minimal effort required to take MS’s carrot (bribe money) and then left it at that.
MS *DOES* have a pretty solid history of making “we win, everybody else loses” deals and that may have come into play here.
Many of these apps are similar if not the same as apps on Android or IOS. Considering Nokia’s Intellectual Property and the companies they own (Navteq). I was expecting something more!
And what’s really odd to me is that Nokia abandoned MeeGo because the ecosystem is critical, and WP was supposed to bring a ready-made ecosystem so Nokia didn’t have to build their own.
But to look at these fundamental apps they are funding that will be exclusive to Nokia, it looks like they’re building their own stand-alone ecosystem anyway. One step forward, two steps back.
Nokia is already a Microsoft oriented phone manufacturer now and this exclusivity deal will just alienate the other manufactures to abandon the OS.
If Microsoft buys Nokia, it will effectively become Apple because they will control both hardware and software. It’s happening already because Nokia’s CEO has a close relationship with Microsoft.
Edited 2012-05-09 03:58 UTC
From the title, I thought Nokia was funding unique apps for WP that are not available in the massive Android and iOS stores.
Then I saw Angry Birds Space, which I play (in HD) on my iPad and my wife plays on her Nexus and Fire, and realized they are only excluding other Windows Phone manufacturers. Or (from my perspective), Nokia is attacking its natural allies while ignoring their shared and highly successful competition.
So I’m guessing this pretty much seals the deal on Nokia being the lone WP maker, and the eventual Microsoft / Nokia buyout. Yet another questionable strategic decision from the Master of Questionable Strategic Decisions, Mr. Elop.
One argument against WP is the number of apps compared to iOS and Android. My work phone is a WP one and I miss stuff that is available for iOS/Android. No Dropbox or LogMeIn for example.
So when buying a WP phone it better be a Lumia or you’ll have even less apps. Then again, if you buy a WP phone, be it a Lumia, it’s still uncertain even you can even upgrade to WP8. If you can’t then after a while WP8-only apps will appear which you can’t run.
My Lumia 800 isn’t so bad, but it’s not iPhone. But I would never buy it myself because of the lack of apps AND the WP8 uncertainty.
Here we go with Microsoft business as usual: drown the problem in money. Can’t get indies to write software for your platform? Commission them! Can’t get carriers to sell your handsets? Bribe them! Can’t get manufacturers to use your OS? Buy them! There isn’t a problem in Microsoft world that can’t be solved with copious amounts of money.
How is this “Microsoft’s World”?
This is real world and it works like a charm.
I wish tere was a site just for OS news, sadly there is not, atleast not updated on a regular basis. This site has turned into mobilephone/law-news. It makes me sad.