As soon as Microsoft announced the imminent start of sales of the new Nokia XL Android smartphone in Russia, news immediately appeared about exactly how the company is going to replenish the Nokia Store application database. The method is controversial, but it is not devoid of a kind of grace.
We will go a little bit from afar, recall the whole history of events.
Last February, Nokia, which was not owned by Microsoft at that time, announced plans to release a new line of Android-based devices.
The news was received very warmly in Europe and Russia, where the Finnish company’s mobile devices have always been popular. However, in the last three years, love has come to naught due to the fact that the Finns produced smartphones only on the basis of Windows Phone, which is still breathing incense.
The announcement of the Nokia X series, namely under this brand Nokia announced a line of Android smartphones, was perceived by many as a possible rejection of further promotion of Windows Phone, recognition of their mistakes. Perhaps as a diversification of future risks. As it turned out, in vain.
The company’s first Android smartphone received very negative press ratings. The main claims of the Russian press were reduced to the following two points:
- Microsoft offered the device at a budget price in the region of four to five thousand rubles, whose characteristics are at the level of devices sold for two to three thousand rubles;
- The Android shell turned out to be crude and very similar in design to Windows Phone.
Another significant disadvantage was the lack of pre-installed Google Play. As an alternative, Nokia offered the owners of brand new Nokia X to use the Nokia Store app store. In the latter, for obvious reasons, there are very few applications compared to Google Play, which, by the way, cannot be installed without modifying the shell.
As it turned out today, Nokia has a plan on how to quickly and effectively solve the problem with a small number of applications in the store. The company independently adapts the most popular Google Play applications for its own Android shell, creates profiles of their developers on the Nokia Store, uploads applications to the Nokia Store, and then asks the developers if they want to give permission for their applications to appear in the mentioned store.
To us, such a strategy seems very bold and working, because in this case Microsoft, in fact, takes over the work of developers. It would be great if Microsoft ported projects to Windows Phone on its own. What do you think about it?
P.S. Both smartphones and mailing are made on behalf of Nokia, but in light of the imminent renaming of the division of the Finnish company engaged in the creation of mobile devices to Microsoft Mobile (while this is a working name, as Elop said, but who knows, maybe it will take root), as well as the fact that this division belongs to Microsoft, in The Nokia name can be replaced anywhere in the text with the Microsoft company name.
P.S.S. Nokia X Dual sim is currently on the market, the official launch of Nokia XL Dual sim in Russia will take place tomorrow. Microsoft also plans to release Nokia X+ Dual sim.