Probably more than any other app, Instagram attracts the envy of many non-iPhone owners. The insular social network, is simple, fast and easy to use. And while the company has stated plans to release on Android, the latest talk suggests that we might see it on Windows Phone first.
According to Fast Company’s Austin Carr, sources tell him that the Windows Phone team is working directly with Instagram on an app, and it’s pumping the project full of cash. Instagram meanwhile, favours the quality control standards for Windows Phone hardware that Android lacks.
Under Windows Phone 7’s new design approach, however, devices have to live up to certain standards. And that works for Instagram, too, which doesn’t want to deal with slow hardware or cheap cameras. Also, designing an app for Windows Phone 7 means Instagram wouldn’t be dealing with the fragmentation that comes with dozens of models of Android smartphones.
It makes sense that Instagram would want to wait on Android until more people began using Gingerbread and upgraded to phones with cameras that weren’t god awful (which is to say those found in any Android handset before 2011). But for the time being, both Instagram and Microsoft remain mum on what they’re up to, if anything at all. [Fast Company]