Box releases Windows Phone app
It seems the Windows Phone operating system has dialed up another fan: Box. The cloud-service provider has released an app for the OS.
The free app will let Windows Phone users pin Live Tiles to the start screen; move, copy and delete content in batches; share files and folders as links as well as lock content with an app passcode.
“We really love the opportunity to be on this device,” Chris Yeh, vice president of platform at Box, told The Times. He was extolling the experience of the dynamic and updating Live Tiles. “We have customers talking to us about this now.”
And what their customers are saying, mostly, is that they are intrigued by the mobile operating system.
While “intrigue” isn’t quite investment from a critical mass and the jury is still out on whether Windows Phone will become the third great operating system, Box’s primary focus is on enterprise customers. And enterprise has certainly been more comfortable and conversant with Windows products over the years.
Yeh said the company is always “looking at the next great operating system.” It launched on iOS in 2008 and on Android in 2010. Conversely, Box also had launched apps for less successful operating systems WebOS and Playbook.
Along the lines of looking forward, Box also is announcing a deal with chipmaker Qualcomm that will pre-load the Box app on devices using its Snapdragon processors.
“We want it loaded early on millions of devices,” Yeh told The Times. Since lead times on phone development can be long, he said, it won’t be clear until possibly winter which phones will have it.
Users will also get 50 GB of free cloud storage on Box and several paid apps compatible with Box’s OneCloud. The storage will be for the lifetime of the Box account. And the apps will remain the users’ for the life of the phone.
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