Microsoft had no qualms about paying certain developers to make sure that Windows Phone 7 launched with a strong selection of ‘must-have’ apps popular on other platforms. Foursquare got a check from Microsoft, Pandora did not.
Perhaps due in part to a lack of prodding by Microsoft, there is no Pandora in the current app Marketplace for the phone platform, and there seems to be no immediate plans to change that, something that is sure to disappoint many a potential WP7 user. How long will WP7 owners have to wait?
We have two specific bits of information that we can use to attempt to discern the future. First, we have a short statement from Pandora themselves:
While we’re excited to see companies innovating and while we’re not ready to make an announcement specifically related to the Win 7 phone, we generally want to be everywhere our listeners want us to be.
Sounds encouraging, right? Not when you stack it next to this tweet from the @Pandora_Radio account to our friends over at WPCentral:
@wpcentral I’m not sure if/when we will be available on #Win7. Appreciate everyone’s enthusiastic suggestions. I’m passing the feedback on.
You just heard a collective grimace from nearly everyone with a WP7 handset, although one enterprising Twitter user had a solution: “thats why i bought @grooveshark instead!” We suppose that that would work. We went ahead and confirmed all of this with Pandora:
On the other hand, it could be that all the hubbub around the topic today could push Pandora to get off their duff and get coding, but we won’t know until they tell us. For now, what are using for radio on your Windows Phone 7 handset?
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