Microsoft/Nokia AppCampus leaves other manufacturers wanting

This week the folks at Nokia and Microsoft have announced a brand new "AppCampus" that'll be what both companies hope is the great beacon Windows Phone needs to get app developers onboard with the platform. This initiative will likely take on what groups like NVIDIA and Qualcomm have done with fostering app developers and take it to a new level with heavy funding and support from both a software and hardware perspective on Windows Phone / Nokia devices. But what is left for the rest of the hardware manufacturing world when they want hard-hitting software on their Windows Phone-toting devices?

A question about apps developed in this campus' halls applicability to non-Nokia hardware assumes that Windows Phone works like Android or iOS, where it's not assumed that each piece of software will work on every device. Where for Android you've got to make sure your application works with the multitudes of device display sizes and odd hardware bits, Microsoft has always asked that developers work inside parameters which inevitably make sure their apps work on the slightly smaller array of Windows Phone hardware out there (a smaller array when compared to Android, of course.)

Then there's iOS, Apple's mobile operating system. Why is it that Windows Phone has been unable to catch up with this giant even though Apple has only produced three lines of devices that work on iOS – iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone? Some may say that it's because Apple did started much, much earlier than Microsoft did with a software that was made to last. Others might point to the idea that when you control the hardware as well as the software, developers tend to trust that you'll provide a healthy environment for them for the future.

In comes Nokia: now Microsoft has a partnership with a hardware company that'll stick with the Windows Phone software for the long haul. Is it enough to get developers interested, especially now that they're bringing a real-life AppCampus to life, complete with money to back it up? We'll be following along closely to see how it all plays out!