Flipboard for Windows Phone: It's coming, damn it!

I remember it like it was yesterday: when Lumia 1020 was unveiled, Microsoft and Nokia were very happy to announce that Flipboard would "soon" be coming to Windows Phone. That was in mid-July 2013. Fast forward to today and the app is still not available. "Soon" has a certain urgency to it, which, for some strange reason, always seems to be missing in its association with Windows Phone.

Microsoft and Nokia could have jumped the gun more than a year ago by touting that the app would arrive shortly after Lumia 1020's announcement, and Flipboard could have inadvertently delayed the launch since. No matter, "soon" sure ain't soon. Regardless, Flipboard is still on its way as its public listing on Windows Phone Store implies. This is one of the major missing titles; the sooner it is available the better for the platform.

From the looks of it, Flipboard seems to offer a decent amount of features on Windows Phone. It comes with a strong selection of news sources, like CNN and Los Angeles Times, personal magazines, social sharing and so on. The app's description leaves plenty to the imagination though, as it serves as a general description of Flipboard, rather than a feature breakdown; the provided screenshots reveal more information.

Now, I said that "it is still on its way" because Flipboard is not yet publicly available in Store. It appears as incompatible with my Windows Phone, which leads me to believe it is currently undergoing private beta testing. And, on top of that, it is only compatible with Windows Phone 8.1, suggesting that it's making use of some Windows Phone 8.1-specific features which may be preventing it from running fine on Windows Phone 8.

Much has been said about the Windows Phone app-gap. There are some people who claim it is no longer an issue (most of them, I assume, are Microsoft employees and Windows Phone fanbois), but, as it's clearly the case here, the platform is still gaining major titles as time goes by. The availability of Windows Phone 8.1 will only make it easier for developers to bring their titles to the platform.