Nokia: Windows Phone Needs More Apps

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Nokia executives are telling the media that the Windows Phone platform needs more apps if they are going to increase sales of their smartphones. Although sales of Nokia’s Lumia handsets have picked up recently, they still lag far behind sales at Apple and Samsung.

Nokia Vice President Bryan Biniak told the International Business Times, “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 added, “We are releasing new devices frequently and for every new device, if there is an app that somebody cares about that’s not there that’s a missed opportunity of a sale. We are trying to evolve the cultural thinking [at Microsoft] to say ‘time is of the essence.’ 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.”

Similarly, another Nokia executive, Jo Harlow, told The Wall Street Journal, “We need more awareness of Windows phones and Lumia, we need a broader ecosystem of applications.”

Salvador Rodriguez with the Los Angeles Times observed, “In the past year, Nokia has released some of the most innovative smartphones available on the market, but with some vital apps missing, consumers are holding off from buying. Its latest device, the Lumia 1020, features perhaps the best camera of any smartphone, but Instagram, the most popular mobile photo social network, isn’t available on Windows Phone.”

GigaOm’s Kevin C. Tofel commented, “That’s a challenge that Microsoft continues to face because current smartphone owners are used to having the apps they want and need. Those on feature phones may better fit the Windows Phone target customer since they’re not yet app addicts. And that could be why Nokia has released a number of relatively low-cost Windows Phone handsets over the past two years: Its best bet to grow hardware sales may be in the low- to mid-range handset markets.”