Are you using Windows Phone but missing a favorite app? Maybe an online petition will do the trick.
That’s the strategy being tried by some Windows Phone users in an attempt to get companies such as Square, Google and Instagram to make versions of their apps for Microsoft’s mobile platform.
It’s a testament to the loyalty of Windows Phone fans, but also to the lingering holes in the Windows Phone Store.
Microsoft says there are more than 150,000 apps and games in the store, but the absence of some high-profile apps can make potential customers wary of buying Windows Phone. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, because Windows Phone’s relatively small market share makes it tough for developers to justify the expense of making apps for the platform.
(As I noted yesterday, I’ve made the switch to Windows Phone, and so far, at least, I’ve actually had good success finding the apps that I need; I’ll have more in a follow-up post.)
The petition to Square seeks to convince the mobile payments company to make its popular credit-card scanning device and app available for Windows Phone. The person behind the Square petition is Ezekiel Carsella, an independent tech blogger in South Carolina who goes by nickname, “The Microsoft Missionary.”
Carsella explains via email that he got the idea after seeing Intuit drop support for its GoPayment app on Windows Phone. He was also inspired by the petition to Google from Windows Phone users. His dad is planning to open a food truck, and he wants to be able to recommend Windows Phone to him, but without a good credit card terminal solution, it’s not an easy sell.
His petition is available here, with a target of 5,000 signatures. “Not only would Square bring along itself but a bunch of other high quality apps that would also bring along more users,” Carsella says.
He adds, “You might ask, ‘Do you think a petition will really make a difference?’ Frankly I do. Why? Because people by themselves even in mass numbers don’t have the same effect as that same amount in one organized protest.”
The petition to Google has received more than 6,200 signatures, but it faces an uphill climb: Google’s recent announcement that its Gmail service will be ending support for Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol is a sign of how the company is approaching Windows Phone.
Google makes a native search app for Windows Phone, last updated in March, but the petition asks the company to bring other apps to Windows Phone including Google+, Google Talk and Drive.
One popular app that doesn’t require a petition is Pandora, which is slated to come to Windows Phone this year along with a year’s worth of ad-free service for Windows Phone users.
