Angry Birds Won't Tick Off Nokia After All

Good news for Nokia and fans of Angry Birds who use their phones: Game-maker Rovio says it plans to make a version of the new Angry Birds Space for the Windows Phone 7 platform, despite earlier reports to the contrary, notes Mashable. The game sequel launched on iOS and Android yesterday, but Rovio's CEO suggested to Bloomberg that it would be too expensive to work up a Windows version. Less than 24 hours later, he told Reuters, "We are working towards getting Angry Birds Space to WP7."

It sounds trivial, but the development has serious business implications. "Nokia is betting on the Windows Phone operating system to revive its struggling smartphone business," explains Bloomberg, and the lack of the hugely popular Angry Birds could jeopardize that. Reuters has a similar take: "Rovio's games are topping sales charts on all key platforms and reports that the gaming company was shying away from the Windows Phone was seen as a major blow to Nokia's strategy to shift to use it in all its smartphones." (More Angry Birds stories.)