In a bid to create a friendly ‘app’mosphere for the Mobile Windows platform, Microsoft and Nokia have teamed up for an app development program termed as AppCampus. The AppCampus program has been set up to help the creation of innovative mobile applications for the Windows Phone ecosystem. In addition, it will also help developers to create software application for Nokia platforms, including Nokia Belle and Series 40.
Over the period of next three years, Finland’s Aalto University will be the training ground for the software soldiers. Not only will Nokia and Microsoft put in funding of 18 million euros for this project, but they will also provide coaching in terms of mobile technology, app design, usability and monetization of softwares. If this doesn’t tempt you enough, the proprietors have made developers an offer they cannot refuse, by letting them retain full intellectual property rights on everything they create.
Ari Rahkonen, General Manager of Microsoft Oy, said, “AppCampus offers an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs to put their ideas into practice and create world-class mobile products”.
“The partnership will allow developers to ideate and monetize business opportunities globally, via both Windows Phone Marketplace and Nokia Store”, said Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice-president, Nokia Corp, highlighting the commercial viability of this program for developers.
The initiative of AppCampus program is not only interesting from a developers point of view, but could also be the game-changer for Nokia as well as Windows phone ecosystem. Let’s just hope, that this would help in increasing the overall quality and quantity of applications available on Microsoft’s marketplace and bring it on par with Apple’s AppStore and Google’s Android Market.
