14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia is set to send out a number of 25,000 Nokia Lumia 800 smartphones to developers, so as to ramp up the building of applications for the Windows Phone Mango operating system, the company has just confirmed.
The info comes from Marco Argenti, senior vice president of Developer and Marketplace at Nokia, who confirmed the move at the Nokia World conference in London.
“Nokia Lumia 800 is a beautiful thing. Developers will be inspired to create beautiful apps; the opportunity is here, now,” Marco Argenti reportedly stated.
Ever since announcing plans to move towards the Windows Phone operating system, Nokia said that they are committed to ensuring that the platform benefits from a great application environment.
Moreover, the company came up with special offerings for Symbian developers who were willing to adopt the Windows Phone platform, offering them free subscriptions to Microsoft's App Hub.
“For qualified Nokia publishers, Microsoft is offering a rebate for the first year of App Hub membership ($99 USD). If you are eligible for this promotion, you will receive an e-mail in early November 2011 detailing the next steps,” the company notes in a recent blog post.
Now the handset vendor makes a new step in this direction by offering free smartphones to those who are willing to build applications for its new devices.
Moreover, the mobile phone maker encourages application developers to start building for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, promising access to a larger user base.
“With the final release of Windows Phone 7.5, there are 19 new additional countries in which you can distribute your apps, bringing the global total to 38; and Nokia with Windows Phone products will be offered in most of these markets,” Nokia states.
“Windows Marketplace has also been extended with a web interface, which will provide increased customer visibility and drive more sales of apps. You will get better ad targeting within your apps too, through the Microsoft Ad SDK.”
All applications built for Nokia's new Windows Phone devices will be distributed through the Windows Phone Marketplace, the handset vendor announced, adding that devs will need a Windows Live ID to submit apps.