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How important are exclusive apps to you when picking out a phone?

posted on Sep 25th 2012 by

In a little over a month Windows Phone users are going to have a decision to make: Nokia, HTC, or Samsung? All three will have compelling Windows Phone 8 devices at launch, and in a wide variety of colors to make the decision even more difficult. One aspect of differentiation in Windows Phone is exclusive apps.

Microsoft allows OEMs to have a special section of the WP Store for their own apps, and apps they have exclusive partnerships with. Nokia really uses this to their advantage the most. So the question is how much does that matter to you? Will you buy a Nokia phone over a HTC because of apps? Let us know below!


  • Sondre Krumsvik

    Nokia is really tempting. I have had only samsung android phones and one WP7 phone (htc titan). Samsung is the best on android, htc messed up their custom UI in android 4.0, it no longer makes sense (pun intended). Nokia offers a nice phone (lumia 920) with a great camera, but it is too small. I would like to see a 5 inch WP phone before I buy a new phone. Exclusive apps are not that important to me. As long as it has a great battery and a big screen I will be satisfied.

  • Matthew

    Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) would be nice app to have on a Windows Phone.

  • Matthew

    Well just glad that some of Nokia’s apps won’t be exclusive like their Map app.

  • JSYOUNG571

    I was just talking about this in an earlier blog on here. How Microsoft seems to constantly show favoritism toward Nokia, by allowing exclusive sh*t like this. It goes further with the support from the carriers. If I buy a HTC or Samsung phone, why the hell am I looking at Nokia navigation? Do you see HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG and others putting each others crap on their phones? I don’t think so. Nokia Navigation is a sloppy excuse for Microsoft not having the brains to expand and build on Bing Maps. If Microsoft is so hell bent on Nokia, then just stick to letting Nokia make your damn phones period. It isn’t fair to customers who purchase HTC or Samsung phones in trying to support Windows Phone 8.

  • JSYOUNG571

    HTC Titan huh? How do you feel about not getting any updates or fixes since you got your phone and dealing with annoying bugs (keyboard drop)? Did you know Nokia has all their phones updated before everyone else, who were before them? Thanks to Microsoft and At&t.

  • Not really. Core apps are available on nearly every platform and for the others there is always good alternative…

  • yes
    and even nokia is good in wp devision

  • The only app I would want on my Windows phone is Nokia Maps. Other than that, I can find a substitute app (music player, twitter client, etc.) or play a different game.

  • CX1

    Do you get paid for these comments? Why do you come to a windows centric site if you hate it so much?

  • JSYOUNG571

    Because unlike most people, I refuse to give Microsoft a pass for screwing over the customers with bs excuses when we know they can do better.

  • what you buy depends on what your carrier supports. Not many people will break a contract because of a phone available on another carrier. I’m on t-mobile and love my GSII but I’m considering going with WP8 this time around. Would love the Lumia 920 but don’t think t-mobile will carry it. Spec wise then the Ativ S would be the best WP8 on my carrier. 8X is nice but spec wise is the least compared to the 920 and the Ativ S

  • Tom Mohammed

    In America yeah, not so much for the rest of the world.