Nokia giving away 25,000 Lumia 800 Windows Phones to developers

By Tom Warren, on 27th Oct 11 12:34 pm with 29 Comments

Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia announced on Thursday that it plans to supply 25,000 developers with Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone devices.

Nokia executive Marco Argenti announced on Thursday at Nokia World that 25,000 Nokia Lumia 800 devices will be made available to developers in the coming months. In a message on Twitter, Argenti praised Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone. “Nokia Lumia 800 is a beautiful thing. Developers will be inspired to create beautiful apps; the opportunity is here, now,” he said. Nokia’s commitment to 25,000 devices follows a promise from earlier this year. Nokia announced in February that it planned to ship free Windows Phone devices to developers when they were made available.

Nokia has not yet confirmed how or exactly when developers will be able to get their hands on a free device. The Lumia 800 is due to launch in the UK on November 16 so it’s likely that Nokia will make the devices available to developers around the same time.

Nokia’s Lumia 800 device is the company’s “first real Windows Phone” and will feature in most of its marketing efforts over the coming weeks. The device includes a 3.7-inch AMOLED clear black curved display. Nokia has also opted to include several unique applications for its first Windows Phone offering. Nokia Drive, Music, Maps and Store applications are all available on the Lumia 800. The applications are exclusive to Nokia’s Windows Phone devices.

  • Guest

    How does one sign up for a free Lumia? :p

  • http://techin5.com Jubbin Grewal @Techin5.com

    Sooooo.. how does one Apply for such device *cough*

  • Leo

    I want one! Have some ideas for apps I would like to try on this beautiful device.

  • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

    I know I said it was underwhelming but…. I still want one. ;)

    • OMG55

      Me too! Although I thing the design is better than any current USA design. The unibody aluminum or whatever precious metal is says quality along with curved gorilla glass. Good combo. Didn’t you hear the ifan calling for what they thought would be the iphone 5 to have curved glass????? Well MS got it first…now watch who follows and says MS stole other peoples ideas.

  • http://twitter.com/PhilippMager Philipp Mager

    That’s strange… Windows Phone just has about 10000 approved developers… I hope they will get these phones first. (and directly after that the homebrew developers over at xda :) )

    • Seth_p

      They’re trying to win over current Nokia devs. It’s a nice incentive!

  • http://www.mainstreetchatham.com/ JimmyFal

    OK I’m done being pissed off, when do we get our U.S handsets.

    • Seth_p

      “soon”…?

    • http://twitter.com/hchooley Matt Baldwin

      Nokia’s US site makes it seem like never as they are only pimping the 710 while their UK site has the 800.

    • OMG55

      Me to, I’ve vented on this site and on twitter. I’ll take of of these and figure out a way to adapt a web cam….Then I’ll have my FFC (haha)

    • Brad

      USA will be one of the first countries the Lumia devices will be released. What they’ve done is that they are introducing the Windows Phone 7 devices in countries where Symbian is not as strong. The countries where Symbian is strong, such as most Developing Countries and South East Asia, will have the WP7 phones made available last. They’ve done this to make the conversion from Symbian to WP7 a lot more smoother. This is also why the new Asha range is targetting these countries and has Symbian rather than a lighter version of WP7.

  • Anonymous

    yes, the phone is that bad and that cheap, they have to give away 25000 just for it to be hip.  kinda desperate for my taste. who will want to pay money for your phone now.

    • Anonymous

      hey moron. They are giving them away because they promised devs free phones and they are delivering. Devs always get free shit.. This will only bring devs to WP7. Too bad your Apple is too uptight to give away free phones loser.

    • http://twitter.com/starksimon Stark

      Don’t forget you also need a Mac if you want to develop iOS apps.

    • OMG55

      See ya

    • phil jay

      Well you need Windows for developing WP7 apps ;)
      I still don’t get which devs get free stuff? The Nokia devs? Are there some?

    • Anonymous

      dude, too much hate for your follow readers. relax, don’t have a heart attack.  anyway, i actually am a windows enterprise developer by profession and if you cant see why these phones are meh, then go ahead and get one. lol. do an unboxing if you feel that strongly about it. hahaha.

      here, have an emoticon from my Samsung slate dev preview

  • phil jay

    If I had an idea and time I’d wirte the killer app… you know ;P

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Viet-Pham/1462211299 Viet Pham

    now how do I fool them into thinking I’m a dev? suggestions anyone? besides actually being a dev :D

  • http://twitter.com/genussystems genus systems ltd

    If I had a free Nokia phone I’m sure I could come up with a good app idea

  • http://www.facebook.com/GNove Frank Lopez

    Yo quiero el telefono

  • Anonymous

    Sadly, I suspect this will be to all their registered Symbian developers, to get them to jump ship.

  • OMG55

    That phone sceams, “Please Hold Me”…..Man I need that same device with 4-4.3″ screen & FFC

  • Anonymous

    So Im hoping some of the 25,000 phones also reach the hands of us Windows Phone Developers here in the states. What a treat that would be…

  • http://twitter.com/pdangcil Paul Dangcil

    Why don’t they give one away to me?!!!!

  • Ahmikkelsen

    Hopefully they won’t ignore designers when giving away these phones, otherwise we might end up with some really ugly apps ;)

  • OctalMan

    The phones are for MSDN subscribers??

  • http://twitter.com/Angel_Nights Alexander Jethwa

    stop complaining they are awesome devices, wait till you get your hands on one