Nokia unhappy at Microsoft's slow Windows Phone progress

Nokia has voiced its frustration at Microsoft's sluggish rate of progress with its Windows Phone platform.

Bryan Biniak, Nokia's VP of app development, has given an interview to the International Business Times in which he addresses some of the issues affecting Microsoft's mobile OS.

Referring to the relative lack of take-up for Windows Phone 8 devices - and in particular the Nokia flagship devices that run it - Biniak said, "To give you a reason to switch, I need to make sure the apps that you care about on your device are not only on our phones, but are better. I also need to provide you unique experiences that you can't get on your other devices."

He went on to draw attention to Nokia's prodigious hardware output, with the company having launched 10 Lumia handsets (most recently the Nokia Lumia 1020) in just 12 months, and the lack of equivalent progress on the Windows Phone app front.

"We are releasing new devices frequently and for every new device," said Biniak, "if there is an app that somebody cares about that's not there that's a missed opportunity of a sale."

He later added that "It's not just about the hardware, it's about the tools that are on the hardware. You can't sell a phone without the apps, you just can't."

Windows Phone's 165,000 apps doesn't appear to stack up to the 900,000 on iOS and the 1 million on Android, although it did launch somethan two years later. Biniak doesn't see that there are any "major gaps" in Windows Phone's app offering, but admits that there are a couple of "select applications" missing.

He believes that by the end of 2013, however, "people will be hard-pressed to say '[Windows Phone] doesn't have this app' and it makes a material difference."

Part of Windows Phone's problem, hints Biniak, is that Microsoft retains a relatively glacial approach to software upgrades and improvements - a hangover from its Windows desktop OS roots. Mobile operating systems, of course, are far more iterative and fast-evolving.

To that end, Biniak claims that Nokia is trying to "evolve the cultural thinking" at Microsoft, adding that "Waiting until the end of your fiscal year when you need to close your targets, doesn't do us any good when I have phones to sell today."

Next, read our Nokia Lumia 1020 vs Lumia 925 vs Lumia 920 comparison.

Via: The Verge

Source: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nokia-unhappy-at-microsoft-s-slow-windows-phone-progress

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