About 18 months ago I first talked publicly about Pandora for Windows Mobile. What followed was a lesson in the perils associated with talking about unreleased products. Over the many (many) months that followed I was called to task by quite a few Windows Mobile enthusiasts that were anxious to be able to take Pandora with them. As we released Pandora for more and more phones (nearly 40 different models today) the criticism became more and more pointed. Here’s how I described the situation some months ago on a Windows Mobile message board:
The full story here is that back almost two years ago we started building a Windows Mobile build of Pandora for the original Blackjack. At the same time working on establishing direct relationships with the carriers. About the time we got the Windows Mobile client into an alpha state, our deals with Sprint (and then later AT&T) came through. With those deals in place we started shifting our mobile development priorities to sync up with what the carriers wanted us to do — without exception that was to so-called “feature phones” and not smart phones. Pandora is still a small startup, so we had to shift our mobile team away from Windows Mobile and onto getting Pandora up and running on the J2ME feature phones. It was almost 18 months before the carriers began to show any interest at all in us adding Windows Mobile versions to the mix. We’ve been actively developing a full Windows Mobile version for the last couple of months.
When the iPhone SDK became available we — fairly i think — saw an opening to ride the iPhone 3G / App Store launch wave and in the process help people understand that Pandora is available in a mobile form as well. Certainly that bet has paid off… but I understand how frustrating it must be that we’ve not yet finished what we started on the Windows Mobile front.
I’m pretty happy to report that we’ve finally made good on my promise from so many quarters ago. Pandora is now available for select Windows Mobile phones and we’re hard at work on porting the application to a broader set of handsets. Here’s how I described it on the Pandora blog:
It’s been well over a year since I first talked publicly about Pandora for Windows Mobile. After a number of false starts and broken promises on my part, I’m happy to report that we’ve now released our first Windows Mobile implementations of Pandora.
Today we’re rolling out Pandora for the HTC XV6900 on Verizon, the HTC Touch on Sprint, and the Motorola Q9C on both Sprint and Verizon. These are free to download and are supported solely through advertising. The entire Pandora experience you’ve come to expect on the web is available on your Windows Mobile phone: create stations, listen, give feedback, QuickMix, etc.
In cooperation with AT&T we are also launching Pandora support for three additional Windows Mobile phones: the Samsung Epix, the LG Incite, and HTC Fuze. AT&T has decided to make these versions of Pandora available on a monthly subscription basis.
To get started with Pandora on your HTC Touch, HTC XV6900, Motorola Q9C, LG Incite, HTC Fuze, or Samsung Epix simply visit http://www.pandora.com using Mobile Internet Explorer on your smartphone and follow the installation instructions.
We’re continuing the work required to bring Pandora to a broader range of Windows Mobile handsets. Keep your eye on this blog and this page for updates on new handsets.
For those of you that have been following along for all of this time, I thank you for your patience. Hope you enjoy the Pandora experience on your Windows Mobile phone.
December 18, 2008 at 3:58 pm
[...] shift their efforts… At that point, I will let Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, tell the rest of the story. (Thank You [...]
December 19, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Cant wait to see what the FUTURE brings to PANDORA. yours truly RICH.
December 30, 2008 at 11:34 am
I love what you are doing with the Windows Mobile aspect of Pandora. Streaming music live on the go, coupled with an enormous selection of titles, artists, and labels – is one of the greatest things that could come to internet enabled mobile devices.
I’m sure there are sticky spots in the development process as devices are so widely varied – but in the end run it will be greatly praised.
Also – I’d be willing to lend my devices in testing if you need beta users. You can contact me if you’d like.
Kyle
February 10, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I would love to see the HTC Touch Pro Pandora app happen. I bought the phone assuming that you would support it…..it’s the flagship phone that Sprint currently offers. Beta testers needed? Sign me up!
June 20, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Twitter is on fire talking about the new iPhone 3GS, so it’ll be interesting to see how much 3GS.com sells for this Thursday. Keep an eye on how much the site is going for here: http://greatdomains.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=57282&tracked=&partnerid=32392&language=us
July 2, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Long time listener (in “Pandora Years” at least). But when I go to http://www.pandora.com on my AT&T Fuze, it says that it is not a supported device. At first I thought nothing since its not listed as supported on the official site, however, it does say HTC Fuze in the blurb above. I must be missing something.
August 2, 2009 at 3:23 pm
You know… I’m a Sprint Treo Pro user, and I’m a little disappointed in Pandora here. On your most recent blog post, about Pandora for Android, you guys state:
“Because we’re a relatively small team we’ve decided to focus on one mobile OS at time with the goal of bringing Pandora to every “smartphone” platform where our users want us.”
Well, people want you on Windows Mobile, but, for whatever reason, you seem incapable of delivering. Maybe I’m ignorant of what’s needed as far as development goes, but I see bunches of Windows Mobile applications that work from phone to phone to phone, with no per-device issues. Applications like Evernote, the Iris Browser, Total Commander, and many more. It seems like all you have to do is simply support all of the common resolutions out there, and you’re golden…
…yet every time I try to install Pandora on my Palm Treo Pro, I’m met with the same damned error message: “Sorry. Pandora does not support your device.”
Why not? It seemed to support my HTC Apache, which isn’t an officially supported device – and this didn’t surprise me, as many of your supported devices featured similar 320×240 screens. I add a measly 80 vertical pixels, and it all goes to hell, then?
I just don’t get it. Plenty of Windows Mobile apps work just fine, from phone to phone, from screen resolution to screen resolution. 240×240, 320×240, 320×320, 640×480, 800×480? In the meantime, you have a massive segment of Windows Mobile users who are worried, legitimately so, that they will never get Pandora support…
November 21, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Why is Pandora available for the i760 but not the i770 (Samsung Saga)?!
March 12, 2010 at 9:24 pm
i think it’s just business, and windows does no want to make a pandora radio app but who cares we are windows mobile and that’s it
June 27, 2010 at 8:44 am
It does not work on my htc fuze. I get the following error message after installing the free trial version and trying to use it:
“We’re sorry, we encountered an unexpected error. Our engineers are scrambling to fix the problem.”
At the bottom of the screen of my fuze is
“Error code: 12”
Thus the installation instructions are probably incomplete.