In an interview with the folks over at FierceDeveloper (via WMPoweruser), Nokia’s Senior Vice President of Developer Experience and Marketplace Macro Agrenti discussed how the company has been going about its Windows Phone developer initiatives. Agrenti revealed that the Finnish company has already given away 17,000 Nokia Lumia handsets out of a promised of 25,000 to developers in the hope of a faster growing app ecosystem for the Windows Phone Marketplace. From January right up until June, he said that 600 developer events will or have been held with 100 of them based in North America alone.
The developer events by Nokia revolves around the Windows Phone and Nokia has acknowledged the seriousness of the matter by setting up local offices in several countries with hundreds of people that are apparently fully dedicated to developer-related support. Agrenti also said that Nokia’s focus was two pronged, with the first being apps that were relevant in local contexts around the world and the second being apps which leverage the unique features of the Windows Platform such as its ‘Live Tiles’. In terms of monetization of applications, Agrenti stated that Nokia had operator billing support with 146 different operators in 50 markets globally and this has not only increased its monetization but also its conversion rates to 500% from its 300% rate prior to Nokia’s efforts.