The new Nokia X series of Androids may run Google’s platform at their core, but Nokia’s taken a few liberties with its forked version of Android that means the user experience is quite a bit removed from what most Android fans will be used to. Specifically, it’s Android sans Google, and you won’t find Google Play Services nor any of the core Google apps as these phones arrive from the manufacturer (though you can certainly install that all yourself after the fact). With no Google Play Store, Nokia’s had to come up with its own app store offering, and the company’s been doing its best to make sure that the big apps you love from the Play Store arestill accessible in the Nokia Store. But is it taking too many liberties in its efforts to keep the Nokia Store well-stocked? That’s what some devs are wondering, after hearing from Nokia that the company has created them accounts and uploaded apps without prior authorization.
Ander Webbs reports that Nokia contacted him about his ADW Launcher (of which we’re already fans), but rather than just asking if he might be interested in making it available in the Nokia Store, the company informed him it had already set up an account in his name and uploaded the app to its servers.
To be clear, it looks like Nokia was still waiting on Webbs’s approval to activate this account and make the app available to users, but that still feels very, very forward of the company. We also wonder if the action of uploading the app may violate copyright laws, as Nokia was never expressly authorized to do so.
At its heart, this may be a conflict between good manners and Nokia’s interest in making the Nokia Store as rich a library as it can be. It’s also entirely possible that we aren’t getting quite the whole story here, so we’ve reached out to Nokia for comment, in the hopes of getting to the truth; we’ll update you if we hear anything.
Update: Nokia’s has replied to us with its official stance on the matter:
Opera is one of our partners and they have publishing agreements to help developers expand their reach. Nokia Store is one of these channels. In order to keep applications updated and to secure the best consumer experience, developers have been given the option to have an account to manage their applications directly to Nokia Store. This process has been communicated to the developer community. We take privacy very seriously and have a good track record of close collaboration with developers.
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