Nokia Has Given 17,000 Phones To Developers

Back at Nokia World in October, Nokia pledged to give away 25,000 Windows Phone devices in order to stimulate app developing in the ecosystem. Now, Nokia has said it has given away around 17,000 so far, a significant chunk of its target. The number comes from an interview by FierceDeveloper with Marco Agrenti, Senior Vice President of Developer Experience and Marketplace for Nokia.

Agrenti highlighted the numerous developer events that Nokia holds throughout the world, with 600 planned from the beginning of this year through to July. About 100 of those are for the United States, with some held by Nokia, and others being a joint venture between Microsoft and Nokia.

When asked how developers were being brought to the platform, Agrenti once again pointed back to the developer events, but also mentioned that the Lumia 900 has seen a strong response in the United States, thanks in part to the media campaign undertaken by AT&T and Nokia. However, when asked if Microsoft was really paying developers to build apps for the platform and if Nokia was involved, the question was deftly dodged.

Nokia has been struggling to keep a hold on the smartphone market thanks to Apple and Samsung, with the latter company recently overtaking Nokia in worldwide smartphone shipments. The Finnish smartphone manufacturer hopes its gambit with Windows Phone will pay off, and the push behind the Lumia 900 in the United States definitely indicates that the company is taking the situation seriously.

[via WMPoweruser]