Sure, people have been playing this game on their iPhones for what seems like eons at this point, but Microsoft’s Windows Phone finally has what apparently qualifies as a must-have app these days: Angry Birds has arrived.
I’ve been playing the game on a Windows Phone this morning (hence the tardiness of this post) and I must say it’s looking good, albeit familiar. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems snappier than playing the game on my iPhone. The Windows Phone version is offered under a free trial, and priced at $2.99.
As noted by Microsoft’s Bill Cox in a tweet last night, it’s part of a series of new app releases for Windows Phone, including Epicurious, Eventful, Dictionary.com, Kik Messenger and Gowalla. An exclusive AmazonFresh app for Windows Phone also made its debut yesterday.
In related news, Microsoft today announced an early access program for Windows Phone app developers to get their hands on a preliminary build of Mango, the code name for next version of the Microsoft mobile operating system. The announcement follows a series of positive reviews from tech blogs that have been giving Mango a spin.
With its market share slipping, Microsoft needs every bit of momentum it can muster to start gaining ground vs. the iPhone and Android. The Mango release, due out in the fall, adds more than 500 new features to Windows Phone 7.
