Frozen Nokia Store downloads/purchases will be unavailable after the end of 2015?

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A couple of weeks ago, the official Nokia Developer Blog announced some changes to its support for Series 40 and Nokia's ill-fated 'X' platform - but the eagle eyed people at Symbian Developers have put two and two together and have drawn a very likely conclusion for Symbian users too....

From the Symbian Developers article:

You might have heard that Nokia X and Nokia Asha basically got killed off by Microsoft recently, or were put in “maintenance mode”, if you want to use the correct term. The plan is to replace these kind of devices with low-cost Windows Phone-devices instead. Sadly, this also means that Nokia Store will get affected. The Nokia Developer Team recently announced that developers can still publish new content for Nokia X and Nokia Asha devices, but that it will come to an end after March 31, 2015.

It was also announced that content in Nokia Store no longer will be available to download after the end of 2015. Although only Nokia X and Nokia Asha was mentioned, Symbian-devices will also get affected, as they all share the same store for apps, games and themes.

Nokia X and Nokia Asha is the reason why Nokia Store kept running for so long, and without them, the store most likely would have closed earlier. It’s sad to know that all content might disappear after 2015, but at least it’s not happening in 2014.

I've said for a while that Symbian enthusiasts should make sure they're as independent as possible from what remains of the old Nokia - using custom firmware, using an alternative application store, using freeware downloads, and more. Of course, there's still some content that is 'locked' in the (frozen) Nokia Store, not least a few commercial applications that were never formally released outside the Store. Maybe some kind geek, in the comments, can explain the procedure for a keen Symbian fan to 'grab'/intercept the SISx file for an application that they have legally purchased?

Before the downloads cease altogether, that is!

Source / Credit: Symbian Developers