Hopstop support for Windows phone ditched immediately after Apple’s purchase

Hopstop is a cross platform mapping service available which was available for Windows phone, Android and iOS. Apple’s purchase therefore of pro mapping tools Hopstop was quite important as Apple badly needs to improve their navigation section. Why is this relevant for us?

Because the moment Hopstop was acquired, it seemed as if Apple couldn’t wait to drop support of WP

It’s normal for Apple as it’s just another acquisition from our point of view as their purpose doesn’t matter much for us. Recently Apple acquired Hopstop and immediately halted the production for windows phone, this action made the consumers fuming their anger onto the social networks and online forums. Consumers have been hugely criticizing Apple for such action and declared this action very miserable.

The problem Richard Hay sees with this is that HopStop has been on Windows Phone since WP7.

This was specifically an app that has existed for well over a year on the WP platform, was available for all current versions (WP7, WP7.5 and WP8) and was happily being offered for WP users until this purchase by Apple happened. Then without warning they pulled the app. No grace period for users to move off, etc.

Plus they kept the Android version up and running at the same time.

http://www.windowsobserver.com/2013/07/19/apple-buys-hopstop-and-immediately-drops-windows-phone-support/

Reddits WP/Technology section seem to be in agreement that Apple should not have pulled this tactic. Is the WP userbase not significant or is WP a potential threat they’re learning to snuff out immediately? BlackBerry doesn’t seem to be there on the available OSes at all.

Source: windowsobserver.com via Reddit

Category: Nokia