So at MWC 2014, Nokia unveiled a trio of Android handsets in the form of the Nokia X, Nokia X+, and the Nokia XL. This is an interesting move by Nokia, and some might say a smart one given how widespread and popular the Android operating system is.
However one of the problems we highlighted was regarding app availability. With Nokia’s handsets running a forked version of Android with no access to Google Play, it would mean that developers would need to submit their apps to Nokia’s app store, which while not really an issue, could take some time.
However Nokia believes that this isn’t really that big of an issue as they have claimed that as it stands, 75% of the Android apps available will be able to run on Nokia’s Android devices without needing any tinkering whatsoever. However for those that might need to make some changes, Nokia believes that it will only take around 8 hours to get them ported onto their handsets.
Those are very optimistic numbers by Nokia and for the sake of their new Android handsets, we hope that it is true. In the meantime developers who want to check if they might have any problems getting their apps to run on Nokia’s new phones can download a plugin that will analyze their app to see if there might be any issues.