Microsoft and Nokia are continuing their love-in, today announcing plans to invest a cool $US24 million into a new app development centre, to be based in Finland.
Called AppCampus, the initiative will launch in May under the management of Finland’s Aalto University. The plan is to attract students, developers and entrepreneurs to Windows Phone and Symbian platforms — good luck with the latter, Nokia. Presumably it also plans to entice some of them to Finland, too, so if you’re interested now might be the time to invest in some thermals.
The announcement will be a shot in the arm for Windows Phone Marketplace, which is currently rather empty. With just 70,000 apps — and lacking many of the big names that are available on iOS and Android — WinPho currently seems like the lowest priority OS for developers. Maybe a big bucket of cash can change that. [AppCampus]