Press Release: Vertigo today announced the release of the first version of the ‘iheartradio’ mobile application developed specifically for Windows Phone 7 on behalf of Clear Channel Radio. With over 750 stations of free and premium content, ‘iheartradio’ has more than 10 million downloads on other mobile platforms, and is now available for Windows Phone 7 devices.
Vertigo designed and developed this particular mobile version of ‘iheartradio’ to take advantage of the user experience paradigm, depth of social media integration and built in Zune functionality, which are distinct features of the Windows Phone 7 platform. As a result, the ‘iheartradio’ application retains all of the existing functionality of other mobile platforms, while introducing new features such as deep integration with Facebook, Zune Music and Video Hub, and Zune marketplace — allowing users to purchase and download songs directly to their Windows Phone 7 device.
"We were building prototype applications for select clients on Windows Phone 7 beta code back in February of this year for the Microsoft MIX10 conference," said Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo. "Now here we are approaching the US launch of Windows Phone 7, and we couldn’t be more excited about the relationship we’ve developed with Clear Channel Radio to launch our first commercial application for their ‘iheartradio’ product, which is already getting great reviews as a free download."
"Windows Phone 7 represents a compelling new mobile content experience," said Evan Harrison, EVP of Clear Channel Radio. "Our partnership with Microsoft and Vertigo has enabled us to showcase ‘iheartradio’s’ depth in a user-friendly fashion on this unique platform." ‘iheartradio’ is available for download now in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace, in time for the U.S. release of handsets on November 8, 2010.
Comment:
Snow-balling support for Windows Phone 7 means increasingly Windows Phone 7 users will not have to be concerned whether a service will support their phone, a major improvement over Windows Mobile and a good reason to upgrade.