No Skype, Angry Birds, PES 2012 on Lumia 610 - potential deal breaker?

Popular apps, such as Angry Birds, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Skype and even video calling app, Tango have been refusing to install on Nokia’s Lumia 610 smartphone causing concerns over Microsoft’s claims that close to 95 percent of the apps in the market would work on low-end devices.

WindowsPhoneApps.es had posted a hands-on video of the new Nokia Lumia 610 and while the handset was smooth in overall navigation and functionality giving an indication that and 800 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM was more than enough, it had some major problems installing popular applications. Microsoft had mentioned earlier that only 5 percent of the apps from the market would be incompatible with low-end, budget handsets, but if these 5 percent of apps are surmounting to the most popular ones, then that’s definitely not good news. 

Angry Birds, who? 

For those not in the know, here is a quick rundown on the specifications of the Nokia Lumia 610 once again:

• Display: 3.7-inch LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels
• Processor: 800 Mhz single core
• Camera: 5 MP camera
• Video resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels, 30 fps
• Internal memory: 8GB
• RAM: 256 MB
• USB 2.0 high-speed through micro USB connector
• NFC
• 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR
• Battery: 1300 mAh

In the current scenario, apps are slowly, but surely gaining a lot of importance for those wanting to get more out of their smartphones. There are chances that developers might need to include ‘256 MB of RAM’ devices in their minimum requirement list, but chances that the Apps may not be supported altogether, are pretty high. Games like Angry Birds definitely do not lay the benchmark for what may or may not be termed as a smartphone; but if these apps do not work, they could be a potential concern for those wanting to buy the Lumia 610 and other similar low-budget, WP7 smartphones.  We’re still giving Microsoft the benefit of doubt, here as there could plenty of reasons why the apps aren’t working at present. However, if these and other popular apps are permanently unsupported, they may be a potential deal breaker. What do you guys think about this WP7 fragmentation? Let us know in the comments below. 

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?