Nokia to give developers free Windows Phone 7

Nokia is offering all its developers a free Nokia E7 and a free Windows Phone 7 device. Presumably to keep them sweet, supported, and in the loop. The news leaked via Steve Troughton-Smith, an iPhone dev, who received the email from Nokia. More details after the jump.

The email reads:

“In light of the strategy announcement made by Nokia and Microsoft last week, we are writing to you today to assure you that our commitment to you and your work to develop innovative apps for Nokia devices remains as strong as ever…To assist you with your development activities in the near-term, we will ship one free Nokia E7 device to all program members. Additionally, we will send to you one free Nokia WP7 device, as soon as it becomes available.”

On top of free hardware, Nokia will also be offering free tech support, plus one free entry to the next Nokia World or Nokia Developer Summit.

This is a considerable sweetening of the deal from Nokia, and does show a commitment from them to be working through how to support a development community that’s been thrown into the relative unknown. With the boo-hiss from developers still echoing around the internet, will it be enouhg to make developers stay?

Are you a Nokia developer? Shout out in the comments with your thoughts on the Nokia freebies!

[via @Stroughtonsmith SlashGear]

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