Nokia Windows Phone 8 Supported by Verizon; Gaming to Be Encouraged by Unity Engine Release

According to an anonymous Bloomberg source, Verizon plans on releasing a Windows 8-powered Nokia Oyj smartphone later this year in an effort to regain ground lost to Samsung and Apple in the U.S. market.  

The site reports that Nokia sold 4 million Lumia phones worldwide in the second quarter, and that they need to need to increase their sales five-fold in order to offset their disadvantage in the smartphone market.

Charlie Wolf, analyst for Needham & Co., notes that while "Nokia has had a difficult time breaking into the U.S. market," the company "has a chance" if the Windows 8 phone is successful.

HTC Corp.'s Trophy phone, Verizon's last Windows Phone, was released in May 2011 and didn't take off, resulting in lackluster sales.

On Nokia's prospects of breathing new life into its brand, Wolf adds: "Landing the Verizon network is a positive development. It doesn't solve the problem, but it is a big step in the right direction."

News of Verizon's plans to support Nokia affirm Nokia's vice president's recent confirmation that Nokia's Lumia Windows phones would be available on Verizon.

In other developments, the popular Unity game engine has been announced for Windows 8 Phones. Unity is a multiplatform development tool that has the ability to run on PC, Xbox, iOS, and Android, streamlining the release of games over those platforms. By offering a unified coding language for each of these systems, developers no longer have to translate their games into another programming language.

John Richards, Senior Director of Windows App Marketing at Microsoft, stated: "The number of high quality Unity-authored games for the PC, Xbox, and mobile devices already created is staggering and we're looking forward to seeing these products appear in the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Marketplace."

Microsoft still has a lot of work to do, retaining only 3.5 percent share of the mobile operating system market in the second quarter, as opposed to Apple's 16.9 percent and Android's towering 68 percent.

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