Free Nokia Windows Phone 7 device and Nokia E7 for Nokia’s developers

If you were a developer writing apps for Nokia’s Qt program over the last couple of days, you’d be remiss if you didn’t actually take a gander at the opportunity Nokia is providing to their obviously jilted devs. Nokia sent to following letter out to members of their Forum Nokia launchpad program with a message saying pretty much the following.

—Yea, we kinda did screw you over there guys, BUT we’re really trying to make up for it. If you don’t mind, we’ll send you a free E7 and our new Windows Phone device just as soon as we’re done making it. Just to make sure you don’t forever hate us and join another dev community, we’ll sweeten the deal by adding free tech support for a couple months and quality assessment for one app of your choice.

Personally, I think that while it is a great deal, the emotional nature of some individuals would probably preclude their ability to rationally look at the opportunities provided. In any case, it shows Nokia has realized that its actions have consequences and are moving quickly to mitigate them. In any case, we might be seeing some cool leaks on the way :).  Stay tuned for my opinions of Windows Phone and what it means for Nokia’s ecosystem.

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Post Merger.

Chris Davies from SlashGear (thanks to Yiannis for the heads up – via Engadget) is reporting that Nokia are giving developers free Nokia E7 and Nokia’s WP7 devices. There’s a memo that comes by way of Launchpad:

“Launchpad is Nokia’s mobile app development program, usually priced at €300 annually but currently free for the first year.”

SlashGear

Woah. It’s free to sign up and you get two devices?! Engadget commenters are saying they’re signing up for this now.

What’s interesting is that the memo specifically notes WP7. Not just “Windows Phone” that Nokia’s been careful to note, making the blogosphere think that Nokia’s going to skip WP7 possibly for WP7.5 or even WP8.

To assist you with your development activities in the near-term, we will ship one free Nokia E7 device to all program members. Additionally, we will send to you one free Nokia WP7 device, as soon as it becomes available.

In addition there’s 3 months free tech support with up to 10 tickets.

Do you know what would also be cool? Nokia E7 with WP7 (though upgraded screen res, maybe autofocus cam)

SOURCE: SlashGear via Engadget

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