Long has the market waited to see how Nokia planned to put its best foot forward and stake its claim on a fat portion of the Windows Phone market. And when the company finally took the wraps off of its new set of phones, there was almost a collective deflation. After all, what Nokia announced was strong, but not particularly different.
That’s to say that the first set of differentiation points that the company laid forth were interesting, but hardly shocking in their breadth or potential application. Today, we have learned more.
Nokia and popular game studio Electronic Arts (EA) have a deal in place that will see the production and release of a large number of titles that will only run on company’s new mobile hardware. This speaks volumes about Nokia’s ability to have latitude with Microsoft, as this deal will annoy Windows Phone owners who don’t have a Nokia handset. It also says much that EA is willing to develop the damn games at all. It implies that Nokia convinced the company that it really is set to sell a pile of phones.
This is the crucial quote from EA:
[W]e’ll be designing our games for an awe-inspiring experience on Windows Phone for Nokia. That’s the best games for free plus exclusive content for Nokia users. It’s a big win for Nokia’s consumers worldwide”
According to reports, Nokia will garner a total of 20 titles from EA and its subsidiaries. Will it help drive demand to Nokia’s offerings? Over other Windows Phone handsets, I would say yes, assuming that the games themselves are worth playing. But the question remains if Nokia will be able to generate global demand for the now year-old mobile line. Windows Phone has potential, but it remains, from a sales angle, unactualized. Let’s see where this holiday sales cycle leaves us.
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