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Windows seat: Urban Airship works with Microsoft to ease deployment on Windows 8 Phone using Azure

We’re in the middle of one of the biggest events in the mobile industry, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. So it’s to be expected that companies are making big announcements. Today, Portland’s Urban Airship highlighted their ongoing efforts with Microsoft Windows Azure, Windows 8, and Windows 8 Phone.

“Many of our partners, including Atimi, BrandingBrand and Xtreme Labs are working on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 development projects for very large brands,” said Christopher Dean, chief revenue officer, Urban Airship. “We’re happy to be working with Microsoft to make the process easier and the end result richer and know our push messaging services will handle the most ambitious cross-platform strategies, while offering the scale and precision that best-in-class apps require.”

Speaking of “very large brands,” NBC apps will be among the first to take advantage of the offering.

“The first platform to get the new NBC News app is Windows 8 with Windows Phone 8 following in about a month. There are advantages to being first in a new ecosystem, and Live Tiles and Toast notifications offer unique features to drive user engagement,” explained Yan Philippe, Group Manager, NBC News Digital. “Urban Airship is a great tool that we hope will help drive more frequent use and better user engagement of the NBC News app for Windows 8, offering consumers up-to-the-minute news alerts from NBCNews.com and on-air programs such as ‘NBC Nightly News’ and ‘Meet the Press.'”

For more information, read the Urban Airship press release on the Windows announcement. For more on the company, visit Urban Airship.