I one day told a friend of mine that Nokia chooses the wrong Operating System for its mobile phone evolution from Symbian, and it seems my prediction is coming to see the day of light. According to an interview with International Business Times, with Nokia VP of App development, Bryan Biniak, makes it appear as if Nokia is frustrated with Microsoft’s slow progress. He said “trying to evolve the cultural thinking [at Microsoft] to say ‘time is of the essence’.” These comments come at a time when Microsoft might be rolling out fixes and updates to Windows Phone 8 over the course of the year, with a bigger “feature pack” planned for 2014, but Nokia appears to be disappointed by the company’s slow progress.
It’s no secret that Nokia holds the flag for Windows phone sales as it dominates about 85% of the market. Nokia has released releasing devices consistently since Windows Phone 8 shipped in November, but the lack of apps and software updates has always been the weak point. “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,” says Biniak. Describing Microsoft’s focus on its budget and end of year targets, Biniak says “waiting until the end of your fiscal year when you need to close your targets, doesn’t do us any good when I have phoned to sell today.”
Without attacking Microsoft directly Biniak has managed to put his point forward, that’s Nokia’s frustrations are related to the slow progress of the software powering it’s Lumia devices. “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.” Expanding on the lack of apps, Biniak acknowledges that Smartphone users won’t switch unless relevant apps are available. He calls on Microsoft and Nokia to do more to give people a reason to switch to Windows Phone. “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 your unique experiences that you can’t get on your other devices.”
The situation will get better
Despite the frustrations, Biniak thinks the situation has improved. “People will be hard-pressed to say ‘[Windows Phone] doesn’t have this app,” by the end of 2013 claims Biniak. Nokia isn’t waiting around for Microsoft to improve things. “As a company we don’t want to rely on somebody else and sit and wait for them to get it right.” It’s clear Nokia has been pushing for advances to Windows Phone, including an upcoming update that will support Bluetooth 4.0 on compatible devices.
Source: International Business Times
