Nokia is attempting to woo app developers with such incentives as pre-installing their software on the forthcoming phone, prominent promotion for their products and funding development of an app, according to three people involved in the negotiations. A vibrant app store has become a major selling point to smartphone customers.
In the past, Nokia, which sells the highest volume of mobile phones worldwide, has made efforts to work with some creators of apps for its platforms. A Nokia spokeswoman said the company offers app developers a variety of incentives for smartphone app design, some in partnership with Microsoft, which include coding assistance and marketing. “We do not disclose these arrangements, as each is different,” she said. Microsoft declined to comment for this story.
The premiere phone, which is codenamed Sea Ray and currently being field tested by company executives, will be Nokia’s first to run Windows Phone 7, the year-old mobile operating system from Microsoft. Nokia is expected to release the phone in the next few months, say two executives who are familiar with the plans but not authorized to speak publicly. On Tuesday, Microsoft began distributing the new version of Windows Phone, which will run on the Nokia device.
Last year, Microsoft made similar offers to developers that make smartphone app design trendy on other platforms. Some companies took the cash, but others declined because they feared wasting time working on a platform that would prove unpopular and then having to maintain it. The people involved in the Nokia negotiations expressed similar concerns.
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