We have heard from a source that Path for Windows Phone is going to be made exclusively for Lumia. If true, this looks like yet another sign of Nokia’s aggressiveness in ensuring top apps are available for its customers. The source declined to add further details when contacted via email but supposedly it will be made official in a few days.
Nokia is undoubtedly carrying the Windows Phone banner on behalf of Microsoft, clearly due to its heavy reliance on the platform. Unlike HTC or Samsung which primarily sell Android devices, Nokia has no choice but to fight for software availability on its platform of choice. The company is almost in the same position as BlackBerry in this regard, having to persuade app developers to break the chicken and the egg problem.
As we already reported earlier, Path is one of the most popular apps in Indonesia. Whenever you see an Android or iOS device in public in Indonesia’s major cities, you’re almost assured to see Path installed in those devices. The popularity is incredible. It’s still far below Facebook and Twitter but it’s easily among the top downloaded and most used smartphone apps in the country.
Given Windows Phone’s interface style, it’s rather difficult to imagine how Path would look like on this platform. iOS and Android share many traits in terms of abilities to display certain interface features but Windows Phone is a completely different beast. Looking at apps like Foursquare and IMDB on Windows Phone, they can’t be any more different from their iOS and Android counterparts. Apps like Line and KakaoTalk, which arguably are more similar in features to Path, also have distinctly different interfaces on Windows Phone, not to mention lacking certain significant features compared to their iOS and Android versions.
Path co-founder and CEO Dave Morin said recently that Path will only do native development for its apps which means it will have to devote resources to create a Windows Phone app from scratch. About a year ago Path usage was split 80-20 between iPhone and Android and the company allocates its resources accordingly.
One possibility to still have a Path app for Windows Phone and maintain focus on the general development without committing too much of its resources is to outsource the project. The Facebook app for Windows Phone for example, is done by Microsoft, while Twitter’s official app is developed externally by an unnamed company according to Neowin. Regardless whether an app is outsourced or developed in-house, it matters little as long as the app performs as expected.
If Nokia does have an exclusivity deal with Path, though likely to be time limited, it will further alienate other Windows Phone makers and potentially annoy consumers who already have devices from other vendors. On the other hand, recent data suggests that Nokia leads the Windows Phone vendor share by far and globally, the Lumia leads in awareness and search trends. Of course, this doesn’t take away the fact that as far as the bigger picture is concerned, the global market for smartphones is predominantly ruled by Android and iOS. The presence of top apps serves to remove another barrier of doubt for consumers when deciding to pick up a new device.
On a separate note, it was just revealed that the Lumia 920 has just matched the Lumia 800 in terms of popularity after only four months in the market. Although the entire Lumia series is nowhere near the popularity of the iPhone or Android’s top phones, it signifies a boost in interest in the platform. Having the top mobile apps available would certainly help Nokia’s case which currently controls around 80% of Windows Phone device share.