The Nokia Lumia line of Windows Phone devices have reason to crow today, thanks to a new exclusive release featuring Rovio’s wildly popular Angry Birds. The app, called Angry Birds Roost, was announced back in September and while it doesn’t offer any actual gameplay, it does act as the perfect central hub for the Angry Birds completist. Nokia announced in May that it would be investing in and co-developing titles with Rovio, and this seems to be some of the fruit of that labor.
It gives you direct access to the other Angry Birds games titles for purchase, as well as videos, news updates for the franchise, walkthroughs for those hard to beat levels and secret Easter eggs, user reviews, wallpapers and more. Basically, if you’re feeling like your life is lacking in some way that’s Angry Birds-related, this is the app to shore up those deficiencies, and it’s free since it’s essentially promotional in nature.
The app may not be as exciting as, say, a standalone Angry Birds game, but it’s A) content from a top-tier mobile development partner that’s B) exclusive to Windows Phone, and Lumia devices in particular. It’s part B that’s important for both Microsoft and its flagship hardware partner, especially in terms of optics. If Windows Phone devices are seen as destinations for attractive software exclusives, it should attract users, in theory. That’s what drove a generation of “console exclusives” in the video game market and created some fans with hardcore devotion to once platform or another, and it’s clearly part of Microsoft and Nokia’s strategy for narrowing the perceived app gap between themselves and competitors like Apple and Google.
NOKIA is a Finnish multinational communications corporation. It is primarily engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries. They make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Nokia is the owner of Symbian operation system and partially owns MeeGo operating system.
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