Nokia Oyj Announces Partnerships for Lumia with Rovio, Groupon, Inc., PayPal and Electronic Arts, Inc.-DJ

Dow Jones reported that Nokia Oyj announced a range of new partnerships aimed at delivering applications to its Lumia smart phones, including a cooperation deal with Rovio, the developer of the Angry Birds game series, as well as Groupon, Inc., PayPal and Electronic Arts, Inc. The deals are part of moves to establish third-party app-developer support for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone platform, which it adopted last year in a strategy to replace its outdated Symbian operating system. Until now, Windows Phone has only been offering its users the first installment of Angry Birds, which has been around since late 2009. However, the deal means Rovio will now bring all Angry Birds installments to Windows Phone. Additionally, Rovio has committed to develop and publish all future Rovio titles to Windows Phone as soon as possible. Nokia is also teaming up with Groupon Inc., which is working on an exclusive Nokia Lumia upgrade to its Windows Phone application that will include a function to combine location data with what is seen through the handset's camera. Other new partnership deals include agreements with PayPal, which will develop payment services for Windows Phone and the Lumia smart phones, and Electronic Arts Inc., which will deliver a range of games.