When Nokia announced their new Android-based smartphones yesterday at MWC 2014, they revealed that they had in fact forked Android for their devices. Immediately the company started fielding questions about how users could get existing apps onto their new devices if they decided to go the Nokia route. While sideloading apks is a possibility, Nokia is hoping developers will submit their apps to Nokia's proprietary app store. To help move that process along, they are encouraging developers to submit their apps for inclusion and they are indicating that 75% of apps should be compatible with no modifications.
Nokia is making their SDK and porting tools available, which they claim will handle the chores related to “retouch”-ing apps to make them compatible. They also indicate that apps needing access to Google Services will be redirected to Nokia/Microsoft replacements. According to Nokia, apps that need some additional work should take no more than 8 hours to be modified and ready to go on the new devices. Nokia is even offering a tool that will test an app for compatibility with their new devices which is available on-line at https://developer.nokia.com/nokia-x/analyse/.
Do you think Nokia will be able to succeed with a forked version of Android and their own app store? Let us know in the comments while you are keeping an eye on TalkAndroid for more MWC 2014 news.
source: GSM Arena
The fact is Nokia has admitted it’s defeat.
… And embraced Android and will likely make products that will be used by millions of users and will get a bigger market share and will make more money.. Well done, Nokia. I look at this as a positive move :-) To answer the inevitable question, no I do not own a Nokia phone :-)